The specter of full-scale war is looming over the Caucasus as Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases on Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

The Reports are not promising as the world was focusing on the start of Olympics in Beijing which is intended to solidify friendship between nations.
Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.
“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. “It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”
Georgia has been fighting separatists with ties to Russia in order to regain control of the province, which has had de facto independence since the 1990s.
Georgia is reported to have said any involvement of Russian forces in the conflict will result in a state of war.
Amid international calls for restraint, Russia's president promised to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia, BBC reported.
Moscow's defense ministry said more than 10 of its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia had been killed and 30 wounded in the Georgian offensive. At least 15 civilians are also reported dead.
Georgia's president Mikhail Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia.
He told CNN: “Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory.”
Saakashvili, who has called on reservists to sign up for duty, said: “This is a clear intrusion on another country's territory.
“We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight,” Reuters new agency quoted him as saying.
He also said Georgian forces had shot down two Russian jets on Georgian territory, although Russia denied any of its fighters had entered its neighbor's airspace.
Moscow's defense ministry said reinforcements for Russian peacekeepers had been sent to South Ossetia “to help end bloodshed”.
Amid reports of Russian deaths, President Dmitry Medvedev said: “I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are,” Interfax news agency reported.
“We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished. Those responsible will receive a deserved punishment.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was receiving reports that villages in South Ossetia were being ethnically cleansed.
Lavrov added in televised remarks: “The number of refugees is growing. A humanitarian crisis is looming.”
Russia said it would cut all air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday.
Meanwhile Interfax quoted South Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity as saying there were “hundreds of dead civilians” in the region's capital, Tskhinvali.
Georgian jets have been targeting separatist positions. Both sides blamed each other for breaking an earlier ceasefire agreed on Thursday.
U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the crisis while they attended the Beijing Olympics.
Later, the U.S. voiced support for Georgia's territorial integrity and its state department said it would send an envoy to the region.
NATO said it was seriously concerned about the situation, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all sides to show restraint.
The European security organization, the OSCE, warned that the fighting risked escalating into a full-scale war.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili told the BBC it wanted to ensure that any civilians who wanted to leave the conflict zone could do so safely.
International Red Cross spokeswoman Anna Nelson said it had received reports that hospitals in Tskhinvali were having trouble coping with the influx of casualties and ambulances were having trouble reaching the injured.
A spokesman for the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia said Georgian shells directly hit barracks in Tskhinvali, killing several peacekeepers.
Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said Georgia had simply run out of patience with attacks by separatist militias in recent days and had had to move in to restore peace in South Ossetia.
Georgia accuses Russia of arming the separatists. Moscow denies the claim.
Russia earlier called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to respond to the crisis, but members failed to agree on a Russian statement calling on both sides to renounce the use of force.
Hundreds of fighters from Russia and Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia are reportedly heading to aid the separatist troops.
(Source: Agencies)
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