Russia Ignores Bush Warnings, Escalates Fighting

The fighting in Georgia could easily escalate into a wider war, if not World War III.

Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday against tiny neighbor Georgia, a U.S. ally, targeting the country's capital for the first time. Heavy Russian shelling also forced Georgian troops to pull out of the capital of the contested province of South Ossetia.

Amid the escalating attacks, Russia's navy deployed ships to blockade Georgia's Black Sea Coast, according to Georgian officials.

The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war also increased when Russian-supported separatists in another Georgian breakaway region, Abkhazia, declared "full mobilization" on Sunday.

The Bush administration warned Russia to halt its attacks on Georgia or risk "significant" and enduring damage to its relationship with the United States.

Russian jets, which have been roaming Georgia's skies since Friday, bombed a factory Sunday on the eastern outskirts of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi that builds Su-25 jets warplanes. The attack inflicted some damage to the plant's runways but caused no casualties, said Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

"We heard a plane go over and then a big explosion," said Malkhaz Chachanidze, an artist who lives next to factory. "It woke us up, everything shook."

Georgia's Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said the Georgian troops had to move out of Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of separatist South Ossetia, because of heavy Russian fire.

"Russia further escalated its aggression overnight, using weapons on unprecedented scale. In these conditions our forces conducted redeployment," Lomaia said.

Battle for control of South Ossetia
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded Tskhinvali.

In response, Russia, which has granted passports to most South Ossetians, began overwhelming bombing and shelling attacks against Georgia and Georgian troops.

The Georgian president proposed a cease-fire Saturday, but Russia said it wants Georgia to first pull its troops from South Ossetia and sign a pledge not to use force against the breakaway province.

U.N. Security Council planned to meet Sunday for the fourth time in four days to try to resolved the situation.

U.S. President George W. Bush called for an end to the Russian bombings and an immediate halt to the fighting, accusing Russia of using the issue of South Ossetia to bomb other regions in Georgia.

"The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis," Bush said in a statement to reporters while attending the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Jim Jeffrey, President Bush's deputy national security adviser, said the United States had made it clear that "if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations."