Georgia has attacked the region of South Ossetia and clashes are taking place near the regional capital Tskhinvali.

The statement was made by the Georgian Interior Ministry on Friday.

"An attack is underway, clashes are taking place outside Tskhinvali," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utyashvili told AFP. This news came within hours of reports that Georgia and South Ossetia had agreed to meet Friday for talks.

According to officials, up to 12 people were killed and more than 20 injured during Thursday's clashes. "Tskhinvali is being shot at by mortar and heavy weapons from the Georgian villages of Nikozi and Ergneti and some houses are burning," RIA Novosti reported quoting an official speaking for Ossetia's Ministry of Emergency Situations.


Meanwhile, Ossetian rebel leader Eduard Kokoity accused Georgia of having launched an all-out attack on Tskhinvali. He told the Interfax news agency, "The assault of Tskhinvali has started".

Elsewhere, the head of Georgian peacekeepers in the province, General Mamuka Kurashvili, said on Friday that the Georgian government had decided to "restore constitutional order" in the breakaway region, AFP reported.

All of this came about just as the Georgian President; Mikheil Saakashvili was preparing to enter into talks to find a solution to the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

Saakashvili even made a televised address on Thursday saying, "I beg you (South Ossetians) to cease fire immediately. We have no wish to wage war against you. Don't try the patience of our country. Let's stop this escalation and start talks - direct, multilateral, any kind of talks."

He even invited Russia to play a key role in mediating peace between Georgia and South Ossetia. Saakashvili continued that his country needed true mediators and reiterated that he was once again inviting Russia to play a major role in the current Georgian-South Ossetian conflict resolution. He went so far as to refer to his country as being Russia's natural ally.

This is while, Alexander Lomaya, head of the Georgian National Security Council, said that Saakashvili had even issued orders for the country's armed forces not to return fire if attacked by South Ossetian forces. Lomaya however couldn't confirm whether Tbilisi was setting up troops and military hardware in the conflict zone.


Elsewhere, following a meeting with the Russian peacekeeping commander, General Marat Kulakhmetov, in Tskhinvali early on Thursday, the Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili repeated that Georgia wanted to avoid military clashes, confirming his country's willingness to hold talks with South Ossetia.

Yury Popov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's envoy and a co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), who was in Tskhinvali on Thursday, announced that Russia would mediate a meeting on Friday afternoon. The meeting was supposedd to be between Georgia's Yakobashvili and South Ossetia's Deputy Prime Minister Boris Chochiyev at the peacekeepers' headquarters in Tskhinvali.

As a result of escalating tensions between Georgia and South Ossetia, NATO and the EU Council of Ministers called on all parties involved in the conflict to refrain from using force, calm tensions, and try to find a peaceful solution through negotiations. It remains to be seen however, whether or not an agreement can be reached when the two sides came so close to negotiations before fighting broke out again.

SM/HAR