YEREDVI, Georgia, Aug 13 (AFP) - Hundreds of children were evacuated Friday from Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, where fighting has flared in recent days between Georgian troops and separatist forces.
Around 500 Georgian children were removed from the territory without incident in buses and cars, despite what Georgian parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze described as her own unsuccessful effort to obtain safety guarantees from Russian peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia.
"It is a catastrophic humanitarian situation," said Burdzhanadze, who visited the region and accompanied the children out of South Ossetia before returning to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
Word that the children had been evacuated came hours after the Georgian parliament approved a resolution demanding the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping troops from South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region along the Georgia-Russian border.
Several Georgian soldiers were killed Thursday. Dozens of fighters on both sides have been hurt in sporadic gunfire and mortar exchanges in recent days.