By Dmitry Solovyov and Margarita Antidze KARALETI, Georgia, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Russian troops started pulling back from a buffer zone outside Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region on Wednesday following a five-day war. A Reuters reporter saw about 10 Russian military trucks and several armoured vehicles leave the Karaleti checkpoint next to South Ossetia. The military column headed north towards the de facto border with South Ossetia. Russia has until Friday to pull back troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region, that were established after the war between Russia in Georgia in August. The Oct. 10 deadline was set under a ceasefire deal brokered by France, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency, after Russian tanks and troops repelled a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia from pro-Moscow separatists. "Russia has begun the withdrawal of its peacekeepers from all the six checkpoints located in the south of the security zone," Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of the Russian military's ground forces, told Reuters. In western Georgia, a Reuters television reporter saw a column of 50 to 60 Russian military vehicles leave a military base and cross the Inguri river into breakaway Abkhazia. Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeeping forces in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict zone, said the pullout would be completed in daylight hours. "Everything is completely on track. Everything will be noted and registered in documents," he told reporters. A second line of Russian troops is located on the de facto border with South Ossetia. An unarmed EU observer mission is monitoring the pullback. The war in August followed months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops. Russia drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92. Russian troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks. The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and has repeatedly demanded that Moscow pull its troops out of core Georgia. (Additional reporting by Liutauras Strimaitis) (Writing by Matt Robinson, editing by Timothy Heritage)
Russian soldiers man a checkpoint in the village of Brotsleti, some 90 km (56 miles) west of Tbilisi October 6, 2008. A border guard from Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia was ...
