CONFLICT:

Crossfire War - Third Day of Fighting in South Caucasus
By Willard Payne

Crossfire War - Moscow - Tskhinvili - Washington Watch - South Caucasus Theatre: Moscow - Berlin - Washington - Yerevan - Sukhumi - Baku - Tskhinvili/Tbilisi - Ankara - Teheran; Third Day of Fighting in South Caucasus The Deciding Theatre Night Watch:

TAMARASHENI - Fighting continued for a third day on Saturday between Georgian troops and units from the separatist republic of South Ossetia, which is supported by Moscow.
Al Jazeera reports two people were injured when Georgian troops fired on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvili and two other villages. Spokesman for Tskhinvili, Andrei Patayev said Georgian troops launched grenade attacks Friday. Both sides accuse the other for starting the war which will finally resolve the territorial dispute that actually began at the end of the Cold War in 1990.
Most of South Ossetia's 60,000 population identifies with Russia so they elected to secede. The commander of Georgian forces in South Ossetia, Mamuka Kurashvili stated Saturday, "Rocket-propelled grenades were launched today for one to two hours from the Ossetian village of Kverneti." [ALJAZEERA]
Moscow, with industrial and logistical support from Berlin-Washington, will use this theatre to not only defeat Tbilisi but to also end the supply network set up by Ankara-Teheran in support of Georgia. Russia has also accused some of the newer NATO members, governments that used to be in the Warsaw Pact, of selling weapons to Georgia.
As an example of Washington's serious concern the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon, General Peter Pace, was sent to Russia for four days in late October and while there he visited the base of a Russian airborne unit. Despite the Pentagon still trying to withdraw from Iraq it can still arrange air support for Russia.
As a follow up to Pace's visit Dr. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, arrived in Moscow in late April to co-chair a strategic working group with former Russia Premier Yevgeny Primakov. Results of their planning are now being felt, in this the decisive theatre in the war since it is the only one the Allies can threaten Iran directly. But since Teheran does not hate Russia as much as it hates the West-India (in support of Pakistan and the Muslims in Kashmir) Teheran will oppose Moscow only by working through groups and governments in the Caucasus opposed to Russia.
Access to vital energy resources and pipelines between the Black and Caspian Sea are at stake here. Despite all the public statements and photo ops that will be staged between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russia President Vladimir Putin, I suspect at the top of their agenda is this new fighting, which in the very near future they will issue coordinated statements concerning it.

Night Watch Information Service
http://www.crossfirew7/1/2007