Reports: South Ossetia region under heavy fire

TBILISI, Georgia – The capital of Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia came under heavy fire early today, just hours after Georgia’s president declared a unilateral cease-fire, news reports and the rebel government said.

“The assault is coming from all directions,” said a brief statement on the separatist government’s Web site.

The Interfax news agency, reporting from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, cited Vladimir Ivanov, an official of the peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, as saying the fire included salvos by truck-launched Grad missiles.

A week of clashes and escalating tension in South Ossetia has raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia’s separatist leadership.

At the request of Russia, the United Nations Security Council began meeting in emergency session starting at 11 p.m. Thursday in New York.

Council members held private talks on a Russian-drafted statement that would have the council expressing “serious concern at the escalation of violence” and calling on all sides “to cease bloodshed without delay and to renounce the use of force.”

A Georgian diplomat had no immediate comment on whether his nation would agree to put down its arms.

On Thursday evening, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.

South Ossetia had also agreed to hold fire until a meeting today between the region’s deputy prime minister and Georgia’s top envoy for separatist issues, Russian news agencies reported.