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Report: Russia closes down all checkpoints in South Ossetia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-09 06:27

MOSCOW - Russia has closed down all six checkpoints in the buffer zone bordering Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

A column of Russian troops prepares to leave the checkpoint at a bridge over the Inguri River in Western Georgia October 8, 2008. [Agencies]

"The personnel of five posts have already arrived in South Ossetia. The last column of peacekeepers from the sixth observation post is en route to Tskhinvali," the capital of the rebel region, Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, was quoted as saying.

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All Russian peacekeepers operating in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone will leave Georgia's territory Wednesday, he said.

Russian troops have been deployed in Georgian territories since the end of a five-day conflict, which broke out after Georgia launched a sudden attack against South Ossetia on August 8 to reclaim control over the region. Russia sent in troops the next day and defeated the Georgian forces.

Under a France-brokered ceasefire pact, Russia agreed to pull its troops out from undisputed parts of Georgia by October 10, leaving them in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognized as independent states on August 26.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a conference in France that Russian peacekeeping forces will complete withdrawal from the buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia by the end of Wednesday.