With the eyes of the world on the Olympics, a day of drama and bloodshed left Moscow on the the brink of all-out war with U.S.-backed Georgia.
Overnight, two Russian planes were shot down and more civilians were killed during fighting in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Russian officials today said its forces had taken the South Ossetian capital and that 30,000 refugees have fled to Russia during the last 36 hours.
Stirke: Soldiers run near a blazing block after an overnight bombardment in Gori
Georgia has claimed to have shot down 10 Russian planes, but a press conference today was the first admission from Moscow that any of its planes had been downed.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who declared a state of martial law last night, called on the U.S. to help, declaring: 'Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory'.
Devastation: A Georgian tank burns after fierce fighting
Build up: A column of Russian armoured vehicles head towards South Ossetia
The clashes came in the tiny disputed province of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s.
Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain.
But Saakashvilihas said the troops would be called home in the face of the South Ossetia fighting.
Its capital, Tskhinvali, was said to have been 'almost destroyed' in onslaughts by both sides. Bodies lay in the streets and hospitals were overwhelmed with wounded.
With fierce fighting still raging last night, there was grave concern that the conflict could escalate into a major international crisis.
Most of the 70,000 South Ossetians hold Russian passports and are allied to Moscow, while Georgia is an ally of the U.S. and has applied to join Nato.
In Beijing, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was seen to approach President Bush in the Olympic stadium where they were attending the opening ceremony.
South Ossetia residents look out from the window of a vehicle as they are evacuated
Casualties: People examine a list of wounded
Soon afterwards the U.S., Nato and the EU called for an immediate end to the fighting and the U.N. Security Council convened a tense emergency session for the second time last night to prevent an all-out war.
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, called on Russia to withdraw its combat troops.
'We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil,' she said.
Georgian troops had attacked before dawn, claiming that Ossetian separatists had broken a ceasefire.
Within hours, a column of more than 150 Russian tanks rolled into the breakaway province, which is no bigger than Norfolk.
The Kremlin already had 'peacekeeping' troops there. By evening, Russian and Georgian forces were in direct combat around Tskhinvali.
Amid reported heavy loss of life and claims of 'ethnic cleansing' , Georgia ordered a full mobilisation of its 26,000-strong armed forces. Some 2,000 troops are being pulled out of Iraq.
Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili speaking to a patient as he visits a military hospital in the town of Gori yesterday
Refugees told of devastation in the capital.
'I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,' said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who fled with her family to a village near the border with Russia.
'There are so many it's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.'
The city's main hospital was among the buildings hit by Georgian shelling, said the Russian news agency Interfax, and was unable to cope with the number of wounded people.
Elements of the Russian 58th Army were reported to be in control of some districts, with Georgian forces holding others.
Georgian television showed footage of Georgian soldiers firing machine guns and driving armoured personnel carriers through the deserted streets.
Shell holes pierced the grey concrete apartment blocks and plumes of smoke hung over the city.
Other footage showed Georgian soldiers sprinting through undergrowth and diving for cover as a Russian plane dropped bombs.
Russia described the operation as 'retaliatory' after a number of its 'peacekeepers' were killed.
But President Saakashvili said it was a long-planned 'declaration of war'.
He said the conflict 'is not about Georgia anymore. It's about America, its values.
'I thought that America stands up for those freedom-loving nations and supports them. That's what America is all about. That's why we look with hope at every American.'
Saakashvili said Russia had been massing troops on the border for months.
He said: 'They have been calling it training exercises, but they have not been concealing the fact that they are training these troops for use inside Georgia.
'The way the escalation went was we came first under extensive artillery barrage from the separatists... but in the end I was told that Russian armoured vehicles started to cross the Georgian border. And that was exactly the moment when I had to take this decision to fire back.'
Welcome: A man greets Georgian troops moving into Tskhinvali
Strike: Georgian shells are fired at separatist rebels in South Ossetia yesterday
He said: 'Most decision makers have gone for the holidays... Brilliant moment to attack a small country.'
Though South Ossetia is small, it is part of a tinderbox region with vital importance to world energy supplies.
'Total mobilisation': Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili ordered all men to go to recruitment centres
Georgia claimed to have shot down four Russian fighter jets, and said Russian planes bombed three air bases inside Georgia and a numberof towns and villages - including the birthplace of Josef Stalin. Moscow denied the reports.
Last night South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoity claimed about 1,500 people had died as a result of 'Georgian aggression'.
He said: 'We have this on the basis of reports from relatives'.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Georgians of ethnic cleansing in villages in South Ossetia.
He added: 'The number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives.'
Georgian policemen evacuate a Georgian soldier, wounded in battle
In his first diplomatic crisis since he took office, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned: 'I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect the lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located.
'We won't allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished.'
But Georgian prime minister Lado Gurgenidze said Georgia had simply run out of patience with cross-border attacks by separatist militias in recent days and had had to move in to restore peace in South Ossetia.
Ossetian women and children escaping from South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali under the heavy fire of Georgian army
Nato said it was seriously concerned, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on all sides to show restraint.
The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting risked escalating into full-scale war.
Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania said Russia had embarked on 'a full-scale military invasion' of his nation.
'Russia is openly challenging the international community,' he said, detailing a list of Russian bombings and troop movements.
'The Russian agression is aimed to subdue Georgia.'
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country's forces were peacemaking in an area that had by subjected to a "scorched earth" policy by Georgian aggression.
'This cannot be described as anything but a gross violation of international laws,' he said.
Most of Georgia's military hardware comes from former Warsaw Pact countries, and is outdated compared to the Russian army's equipment. its air force is also predominantly equipped with Russian-made aircraft.
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