US urges calm in South Ossetia
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(AP) - The United States called Friday for an immediate cease-fire in a conflict between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has spoken to the parties involved and was working to end the fighting, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.
The United States was also sending an envoy to the region on Friday to meet with the parties involved to try to end hostilities. U.S. officials said the envoy was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, a specialist on the region.
"We support Georgia's territorial integrity," Gallegos said. "We are working on mediation efforts to secure a cease-fire."
The scramble by U.S. diplomats came as Georgian troops launched a major military offensive to regain control over South Ossetia. The fighting prompted a furious response from Russia, which vowed retaliation and sent a column of tanks into the region.
It was the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won de facto independence in a war that ended in 1992.
A Russian military officer says 10 Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeepers but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.
U.S. Department of Defense officials have had some contact with Georgian authorities, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday, adding that the U.S. is monitoring the situation closely. Whitman said Georgia has not requested any U.S. assistance, but he would not provide details on any discussions that have occurred.
He said he does not believe U.S. military officials have had any contact with the Russians.
According to Whitman, the U.S. has about 130 trainers in Georgia, including a few dozen civilians who are all working to prepare the Georgian forces for their next deployment to Iraq. All of those U.S. trainers, he said, have been accounted for, none has been injured, and there are no plans to pull them out of the country.
He said the trainers are in the Tbilisi area, but he would not say exactly where.