The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Moscow

Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says some 1,500 people have been killed in fighting in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Lavrov said in a conference call that foreign journalist that the deathtoll is continuing to rise.

Georgia launched a massive offensive to regain control over the breakaway province which has close ties with Russia, and Moscow responded by sending in armored convoys. Georgia also accused Russia of bombing its towns, ports and air bases and asked the international community to help end what it called Russian aggression.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russian troops in South Ossetia must force Georgia into a cease fire and also protect civilians in the province, most of whose residents hold Russian passports.

Fighting raged a second day Saturday in Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region as the country's interior ministry accused Russia of launching new air attacks on three military bases and key facilities for shipping oil to the West.

Russia dispatched an armored column into South Ossetia on Friday after Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a massive attack with aicraft, armor and heavy artillery to crush separatists.

Witnesses said hundreds of civilians were probably killed, and most of the capital of Tskhinvali was in ruins. Carcasses of burned Georgian tanks and dead bodies littered the streets, and sporadic shooting continued through the night and into the morning.

The fighting, which devastated the capital of Tskhinvali, threatened to ignite a wider war between Georgia and Russia, and escalate tensions between Moscow and Washington. Georgia said it was forced to launch the assault because of rebel attacks; the separatists alleged Georgia violated its own cease-fire. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of waging an aggression against his country. Russia said it needs to act to protect its peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia, where most residents hold Russian passports.

Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital was bombed by Russian warplanes during the night and that bombs fell in the area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

He also said two other Georgian military bases were hit and that warplanes bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility. Utiashvili said there apparently were significant casualties and damage in the attacks, but that further details would not be known until the morning.

"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."

The Interfax news agency cited South Ossetian government spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva as saying Tskhinvali came under prolonged fire during the night "but it was suppressed by the armed forces."

The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush, were in Beijing.

The timing suggested Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia - a key to his hold on power. The rebels seek to unite with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia.

Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. "Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he told CNN. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."

Diplomats issued a flurry of statements calling on both sides to halt the fighting and called for another emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to halt aircraft and missile attacks and withdraw combat forces from Georgian territory. Rice said in a statement the United States wants Russia to respect Georgian sovereignty and agree to international mediation.

The leader of South Ossetia's rebel government, Eduard Kokoity, said about 1,400 people were killed in the onslaught, the Interfax news agency reported. The toll could not be independently confirmed.

There were conflicting claims as to who held the battlefield advantage.

Saakashvili said "Georgian military forces completely control all the territory of South Ossetia" except for a northern section adjacent to Russia.

But Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said the Russian armor and infantry deployed on the outskirts of Tskhinvali and prepared for what he described as a mission to "enforce peace."

Konashenkov said the Russian troops were ordered to "harshly suppress any shooting."