High On Voltage

As Russian jets pound enemy targets inside Georgia, the former Soviet republic fights back with new technology as the crisis over South Ossetia becomes deadlier than ever.

Western intelligence sources inside the embattled breakaway region of South Ossetia say that while Russia tries to bring Georgia to it’s knees through an intense bombing campaign, the Georgian military has responded with an unprecedented counter-stroke.

Reports say that the anti-personnel methods which Georgia has employed match the ferocity of Russia’s terror bombing campaign but details of anything are still hard to come by in this embattled territory.

“We don’t know what exactly has turned the tide in some areas for Georgia,” said a European diplomatic source who insisted upon anonymity, “But we do know from reliable satellite surveillance that Russian forces in the region of the Roki Tunnel were driven in a route back into their homeland without any Georgian troops in the vicinity.”

Rumors of this unique retaliation first came to light yesterday as Georgia’s armed forces clashed with Russian backed Abkhazian separatists in the Kodori Gorge, and it’s been widely speculated that this new second front of conflict inspired the desperate response.

Following the Abkhazian success, Georgia reportedly turned it’s technology upon the Russian units assaulting South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and the Georgian city of Gori, among other areas, but it’s unclear whether the lull in fighting can be attributed to this new development.

Diplomatic initiatives have stalled as the UN Security Council continues to struggle in efforts to organize a coherent response to the crisis.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly landed in nearby North Ossetia and speculation has centered on the possibility for ceasefire talks but Russian ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, said that peace is not even a possibility until Georgia’s troops leave South Ossetia.

But with the targeting of the oil facility at Poti by Russian ground attack aircraft leaving the Black Sea port a smoking ruin, an enraged Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to press the claim to South Ossetia at all costs and denounced the aggression of Georgia’s northern neighbor.

The Georgian Army’s ground forces commander Khavali Shevladze vowed to mount a scorched earth policy should a withdrawal be neccessary and puzzling statements attributed to the general could shed light on his country’s new weaponized technology as he warned of an increase in the use of artillery-delivered “suppository bomblets.”