The Russian army on Saturday took full control of the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia from Georgian forces, Russian news agencies quoted the head of the Russian ground forces as saying. "Tactical groups have completely liberated Tskhinvali (capital of South Ossetia) from the Georgian military," General Vladimir Boldyrev was quoted as saying by the agencies.
The Russian army will further push Georgian units beyond the zone of peacekeepers' responsibility, according to Boldyrev. Tskhinvali suffered major destruction in the Georgian offensive that began early Friday. Russia said 1,500 people have been killed in the violence, and 30,000 South Ossetians have fled across the border into Russia.
South Ossetian leader Yury Morozov confirmed that the city is now under the control of Russian troops, but warned that the death toll may rise. He told Russian TV channel Vesti-24 that thousands of people have been injured, and that many residents remain trapped under the rubble of bombed-out buildings, making it difficult to assess the number of fatalities.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the country's troops have started a military operation in South Ossetia to force Georgian troops to cease fire, and paratroopers from Russia's Ivanovo, Moscow and Pskov airborne divisions have been sent to Tskhinvali.
The long-standing conflict between Georgia and its rebel region South Ossetia worsened on Aug. 1-2, when the South Ossetian authorities accused Georgian forces of shelling Tskhinvali. South Ossetia, along with another breakaway republic Abkhazia, broke away from Georgia in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But their self-proclaimed independence has not been internationally recognized. 
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