Russian officials are claiming all Russian forces are out of Georgia.
Georgian officials (and Western journalists) are reporting the city of Gori is under attack.
Now reports of a tank column heading out of Gori towards Tiblisi.
So who is right? Probably everyone.
The tank convoy is probably composed of South Ossetian ‘volunteers’–basically bandits, running around in ‘donated’ tanks seeking to settle scores and loot and pillage. With the Georgian army basically in disarray, let alone the police, it’s going to get positively medieval in some of these areas. Guns will rule and the only protection will likely come from armed neighbors and ad hoc militias.
This sort of warfare is not known for their observance of the Geneva Convention or other rules of war. It’s likely the human rights abuses we’re going to see in the next few days will far and away exceed any of the ‘claimed’ abuses over the last week.
It’s going to be ugly.
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