Russian tanks roll into neighboring Georgia

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DZHAVA, Georgia — Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, threatening to ignite a broader conflict.

Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia. A Georgian soldier is seen atop an armored vehicle near the city of Tskhinvali.

A wounded Georgian soldier is brought to a military hospital in Gori.

A woman with a relative in the army weeps outside a military hospital in Gori.

Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili told CNN that the troops would be called home Saturday in the face of the South Ossetia fighting. Above, a bomb crater in Gori.

Hundreds of civilians were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992.

South Ossetia residents look out a vehicle as they are evacuated Friday.

A fighter jet drops munitions near the town of Gori. "I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."

A Georgian soldier is greeted by a relative upon his battalion's return to Gori. The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing.

South Ossetian separatist fighters guard civilians as they make their way towards neighboring Russia.

A column of Russian armored vehicles, heading towards the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, are seen in North Ossetia, Russia, Friday.

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Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia. A Georgian soldier is seen atop an armored vehicle near the city of Tskhinvali.

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