Separatists took control of nearly all of Abkhazia Thursday, and government troops fought to keep a toehold in the region.
The losses in Abkhazia are a humiliating defeat for Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze, who has said the region's fall could inflame secessionist movements across Georgia and the whole Caucasus region.On Thursday, his leadership also came under renewed attack from his archrival, former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
Abkhazian forces, who drove government troops from the regional capital of Sukhumi on Monday, marched southward along the Black Sea coast Thursday into the port cities of Ochamchira and Gali, Georgian officials said.
The tiny Gali district was the last government stronghold in Ab-kha-zia.
Separatists clashed Thursday around Ochamchira with joint forces trying to retake the city on behalf of both Shevardnadze and Gamsakhurdia, who have joined military forces because both oppose the breakup of Georgia. The separatists seek either total independence or annexation to Russia.
The Georgian Defense Ministry said the joint force had entered Ochamchira, 35 miles south of the capital. Fierce street battles were underway as Georgians attempted to retake the port, the ministry said.
Sukhumi's airport, south of the capital, was abandoned Wednesday night by thousands of government soldiers and armed civilian volunteers who fled into the nearby mountains and toward Ochamchira.
They were hoping to be evacuated by Russian and Georgian ships and trains, but it was not immediately known if any were picked up.