Georgia withdraws Iraq troops to fight rebels

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that his troops in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia are carrying out a peace enforcement operation aimed at protecting civilians, as Tblisi said it would withdraw its troops from Iraq.

"Our peacekeepers and reinforcement units are currently running an operation to force the Georgian side to (agree to) peace," Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"They are also responsible for protecting the population. That's what we are doing now," Medvedev added. Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov was also present at the meeting called to update the president on the situation.

Russian troops poured into South Ossetia on Friday, hours after Georgia launched a large-scale offensive aimed at restoring control over the province lost after a war in the early 1990s.

Russia is the main backer of South Ossetian separatists and the majority of the population, who are ethnically different from Georgians, have been given Russian passports.

Tbilisi accuses Russia of launching a war against it.

On Saturday, Georgia's foreign ministry said in a statement that Russian aerial bombardment has destroyed the Black Sea port of Poti.

"Russia completely devastated the port of Poti on the Black Sea, which is a key port for the transport of energy sources from the Caspian Sea and is close to the Baku-Supsa pipeline and the Supsa oil terminal," the statement said.

The statement was titled: "Russia destroys Georgian port in Poti. Civilian population at risk from Russian aggression."

Georgia declared it would withdraw its military contingent of around 2,000 troops in Iraq to help in the fighting against the Russian-backed South Ossetian separatist rebels.

On Friday, a top Georgian official said only 1,000 troops would be pulled.

"A thousand Georgian soldiers will be withdrawn from Iraq in the very near future," Alexander Lomaia, the secretary of the country's National Security Council, told AFP as fighting raged in the breakaway province.

"The Georgian government has decided to withdraw half of the Georgian contingent from Iraq... Georgia is facing Russian large-scale military intervention and Georgia needs its soldiers here," Lomaia said.

A US military official speaking on condition of anonymity said earlier that the U.S. State Department had received a request from Georgia for the U.S. military to provide aircraft to move Georgian troops home from Iraq.