TBILISI (Reuters) – President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday mounted a fresh defense of Georgia’s assault on South Ossetia in August, denying accusations Tbilisi had been the aggressor in the disastrous war with Russia that ensued.
Under fire from opponents who say he walked into a war Georgia could not possibly win, Saakashvili defended his actions of the night of August 7 during televised testimony before a bipartisan parliamentary commission probing the war.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A group of Russian Islamist militants have claimed responsibility for the killing of the mayor of a city in the turbulent North Caucasus region, an Internet site with rebel links reported on Thursday.
“The execution of the enemy of Allah was carried out by the amir of Kataib al-Khoul,” a statement posted on the www.kavkazcenter.com Internet site.

The Georgian and Polish presidents have accused Russian troops of firing near a motorcade carrying them close to the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.
Both South Ossetian troops and Russian forces in the area denied involvement. No-one was injured in the incident.
President Mikhail Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski were planning to visit victims of fighting between Georgia and Russia in August.
The area has seen much cross-border gunfire since a ceasefire was agreed.

An independent report on the war between Russia and Georgia in August, is calling for an investigation into the conduct of all parties during the hostilities. The London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International, says it is concerned serious rights violations took place at the time.
Amnesty says all sides in the August conflict may have committed abuses. In its new report, Amnesty says Georgian and Russian forces and militia fighters in the breakaway South Ossetia region should be investigated for war crimes during the conflict.

For Giorgi Kapanadze, the fighting in South Ossetia began days before the world even noticed that a war was going on.
Pro-Moscow separatist forces had been shelling his hometown of Avnevi, an ethnic-Georgian village inside the breakaway region, pretty much nonstop since the beginning of August until Georgian troops entered the enclave around midnight on August 7-8.

PEREVI, Georgia: Dozens of Georgians crowded onto a rickety bus Monday, clambering over one another to flee this remote mountain village, which has become a flash point of mounting tensions on the boundary of South Ossetia.
They left behind a nearly deserted village, whose remaining residents are afraid to come out onto the streets for fear of attracting the attention of Ossetian soldiers patrolling the area. Russian troops continued to withdraw from the main checkpoint at the western edge of Perevi, leaving Ossetians in charge of a tense population.