(From AFP: Georgian girls cry reading list of the wounded)

Separatist rebels firing rockets into Georgian APCs initiated what may well be a war between the former Soviet republic and Putin’s increasingly aggressive Russia which is supporting the South Ossetia rebels. It is said to be the fiercest fighting in that region in years:

MOSCOW — Fighting in the border region between the former Soviet republic of Georgia and a breakaway Georgian enclave escalated sharply Friday morning to its highest level in years.

Georgian officials said their troops had made a significant incursion into the breakaway region, South Ossetia, in response to what the officials contended were provocations from over the border, including shelling. The Georgian officials said they had taken up positions outside the capital of the enclave, Tskhinvali.

At least 25 civilians and troops were killed in the fighting that started Thursday, officials from both sides said.

The move by the Georgian troops followed a day of attacks by both sides, as well as an offer from the Georgian president to agree to a cease-fire.

The Georgian side suggested that its troop movements were not intended as the beginning of an all-out push to retake the enclave, but were rather a defensive effort to prevent shelling from the other side.

[…]

In the violence this week, separatist fighters from South Ossetia used rocket-propelled grenades to blow up a Georgian armored personnel carrier, killing two soldiers and wounding six others, said Shota Utiashvili, a Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman. As many as eight Georgian civilians were killed Thursday in a mortar attack on Avnevi, a village in the border region, he said.

On the South Ossetian side, about 15 people were killed, according to the South Ossetian separatist government Web site. Another 20 were wounded when villages came under fire from Georgian positions, said Tamara Keleksayeva, a spokeswoman for the separatist government.

Potentially complicating matters, about 300 volunteers from Russia have arrived in South Ossetia to aid in the fight, she said.

Even the leftist Times admits that the Russian support for South Ossetia is a tit-for-tat response to the Western countries’ recognition of Kosovo independence. Russia has long allied itself with the anti-Independence Serbs and threatened to support similar breakaway movements located in pro-Western countries if the West supports Kosovo.

The Independent has some blow by blow reports on the violence, including the likely inflated numbers of civilian casualties.

CNN Europe and Fox have more on the fighting.

Registan has a good post on the situation and what it means to the world. Gateway Pundit is following.

Putin says it’s war and Georgia is appealing to the U.S. for help. They sent troops to Iraq to help us, will we support our allies in their time of need?