On August 1 Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF) observers from all three sides and OSCE representatives were investigating a bomb attack which had occurred around 8:05am local time and injured two police officers, reported JPKF commander on media issues Captain Vladimir Ivanov. [44] However, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs declared that in the attack 5 police officers had been injured by two remote control explosive devices. [45] Six Ossetians were reportedly killed and 21 injured as a result of one of an intensive shoot-out in the South Ossetian conflict zone, late on August 1 and overnight on August 2. Sporadic fighting continued every day and on August 6, there were further shootouts and Georgia acknowledged it had lost an Armoured personnel carrier (APC) during the clashes.[46] After a night of gunfire in which four people died, shelling resumed at daybreak on August 7. Residents were on the move, evacuating vulnerable areas of the South Ossetian capital.[47] Georgia was reportedly moving tanks, artillery and troops to the border with South Ossetia.[48]

However, at the end of the day, Mikhail Saakashvili ordered an unilateral cease-fire. "A sniper war is ongoing against residents of the villages [in the South Ossetian conflict zone] and as I speak now intensive fire is ongoing from artillery, from tanks, from self-propelled artillery systems – which have been brought in the conflict zone illegally – and from other types of weaponry, including from mortars and grenade launchers," Saakashvili said in a live televised address made at 7:10pm local time on August 7.[49]

Georgia suspended this unilateral ceasefire claiming that sniper attacks and other military actions were ongoing against Georgian villages on both sides of the official frontier. Saakashvili claims that in the night from 7th to 8th of August 150 Russian tanks crossed border into Georgia through the Roki-Tunnel. [50] On 8th of August, the starting day of Beijing Olympics, Georgia launched a military offensive to "restore constitutional order in the whole region."[51] Georgia started a full-scale attack on the breakaway republic overnight, using tanks, aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry.[52]" Media sources reported that Georgian MRLS started shelling separatist capital, Tskhinvali. South Ossetian authorities and others accused Georgia of committing "planned massacre of Ossetian civilian population: children, elderly and young women".[53][54] The Tshinvali's central hospital, university[55] and some of its schools were also hit.[citation needed]

Georgian military forces attacked suddenly[56] with the strong support of heavy artillery (BM-21 122mm and 152mm),[57] tanks,[58] and aircraft.[citation needed] Within the first two hours the main Ossetian defence positions were completely destroyed.[citation needed] Most of Tshinval's communications and facilities were also heavily damaged.[59] The whole city, including the town's central hospital, university and some of its schools were also destroyed.[citation needed] After the third artillery wave, two Georgian heavy tanks regiments began their attack in converging directions around Tskhinvali, and almost completely encircled it. Russian peacekeepers withstood the Georgian thrust and saved several bunkers.[citation needed] The Russian government claimed that Georgian soldiers had killed peacemakers and thousands of civilians (90 % of them are russian citizens) during the heavy artillery attack on the Tshinval.[citation needed]

Russia claimed this attack killed 15 and injured 150 of peacekeepers stationed in the region since 1992 under CIS mandate.[citation needed] In response, Russia ordered 150 tanks, APCs, self proprlled howitsers and MLRSs of its 58th Army into Ossetia, reclaimed Tskhinvali and the rest of South Oseetia.

According to international media sources and Human Rights Watch, Russia used cluster bombs in civilian areas, resulting in the death of civilians. [60]. "Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw. Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an insult to international efforts to avoid a global humanitarian disaster of the kind caused by landmines. " -Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch [61]

According to Russian authorities in North Ossetia, part of Russian Federation, 34'000 refugees arrived from South Ossetia from 2 for 9 august.[62]


[edit] After the 2008 war
On August 26, 2008, Russia officially recognized both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.[63]

On October 3rd (Tskhinvali time) a car filled with explosives blew up near Russian headquarters in Tskhinvali, capital city of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia. Seven Russian peacekeepers were killed and seven others wounded. [64] The Russians accused the Georgians of a "Terrorist Attack", claiming that just before the blast, the Russians arrested four Georgians and seized light firearms and two grenades. "The cars and the detained people were escorted to Tskhinvali. During the search of one of the cars, an explosive device equivalent to some 20kg of TNT went off," a military spokesman told Interfax. The explosion caused devastation, shattering windows 350ft away and sending black smoke into the sky.[65] The Russian Defense Ministry also views the incident "as a deliberately planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the sides from carrying out the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," the ministry said in a statement.[66] The South Ossetian leader accused Georgia of State Terrorism saying "The latest terrorist attacks in South Ossetia prove that Georgia has not renounced its policy of state terrorism. We have no doubt that these terrorist acts are the work of Georgia special forces.[67] The Georgian government blamed Russia for the incident. "If provocations and tensions are in the interest of anyone, it's the Russians," Shota Utiashvili, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told the Reuters news agency, "They are doing everything not to pull troops out within the set term".[68] The French Presidency of the European Union condemned the attack.[69]

On October 4th South Ossetia's Interior Ministry said a total of 11 people had been killed, including civilians. Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian "peacekeepers' " chief of staff, had been killed in his office. Russia's RIA news agency quoted the commander of Russia's forces in Georgia, Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, as saying they had stopped two cars on Friday in the village of Ditsa, in a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia, and escorted them to Tskhinvali. As they were being searched, a bomb went off. Georgia denied the charges, saying it would have had [? hard] to find Ossetians to take the car into the area under Russian control. "I don't understand the logic. How could the Georgian secret service plan that the Ossetians would steal the car and that the Russians would take it to their base. Are we geniuses or what?" Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "The Georgians did not take any car to Ossetian territory or drive it to the Russian base."[70