The Final Air Attacks
Georgian officials say Russian forces had been targeting the city's administrative buildings and claimed that the university of Gori and its post office were on fire after the bombings. On August 12, a Dutch television journalist Stan Storimans was killed and several other foreigners injured when Russian warplanes bombed the central district of the city. 4 Georgian civilians were also killed. During the final strikes, an air-to-ground missile hit the Gori hospital.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international rights group, accused Russia of indiscriminately deploying cluster bombs in civilian areas during the 2008 conflict. HRW said that Russian aircraft had dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions or "bomblets" in the center of Gori on August 12, killing at least eight civilians and injuring dozens more.
Russian military officials denied using cluster munitions, calling the HRW assertion "slanderous". Numerous unexploded "bomblets" were subsequently found by local population and the HRW. Objectivity Data Human Rights Watch has repeatedly been questioned by Russia. Later, Georgia has officially recognized the Georgian aviation use of cluster bombs.
Read more about this topic: Occupation Of Gori
Famous quotes containing the words final, air and/or attacks:
“Child with continuing cling issued his No in final fire,
Kissed back the colored maid,
Not wise enough to freeze or be afraid.
Conscious of kindness, easy creature bond.
Love had been handy and rapid to respond.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“I was a countryman and a father before I was a writer on political subjects.... Born and bred up in the sweet air myself, I was resolved that [my children] should be bred up in it too.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. Once and again one of those great influences which we call a Cause arises in the midst of a nation. Men of strenuous minds and high ideals come forward.... The attacks they sustain are more cruel than the collision of arms.... Friends desert and despise them.... They stand alone and oftentimes are made bitter by their isolation.... They are doing nothing less than defy public opinion, and shall they convert it by blows. Yes.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)