The US state department today evacuated more than 170 Americans from Georgia as the Caucasus country sinks deeper into war with Russia.
Two convoys bound for neighbouring Armenia today carried 170 private US citizens and family members of American diplomats away from the escalating violence in Georgia, the state department said.
More convoys may leave in the coming days if other Americans seek to escape the conflict over Russia's claim to defence of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
However, as the Russian military crossed out of the disputed Ossetian area into uncontested Georgian territory, the democratically elected Tbilisi government pleaded for help from the US.
Georgia's ambassador in Washington, Vasil Sikharulidze, appeared on Fox News and implored America "to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe and a takeover of an independent, sovereign government".
When asked whether he wanted the White House to send US troops into the region, Sikharulidze stopped just short of an affirmative: "it's not up to me. I mean, I can't make the decision, so – [it is] for Americans."
Meanwhile, Russia's deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov defended the invasion of Georgian territory by charging the government with perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in South Ossetia.
"Their political goal was to eliminate the population, a tiny population of Southern Ossetia, because without it, it's impossible to integrate back Southern Ossetia into Georgia," Ivanov told CNN.
"But as a result of what happened, now I'm totally sure that political settlement -- I mean between Georgia and South Ossetia -- will never be a reality in the coming decades."
