Signs of pullback by Russian forces in Georgia
IGOETI, Georgia - Russian military convoys rolled out of three key positions in Georgia and headed toward Moscow-backed separatist

regions on Friday in a significant withdrawal two weeks after thousands of troops roared into the former Soviet republic.In western Georgia, a column of 83 tanks, APCs and trucks hauling artillery moved away from the Senaki military base north toward the border of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region on Friday afternoon. Georgian police said the vehicles came from the base, which has been under Russian control for more than a week.In central Georgia, at least 40 Russian military vehicles left the strategic city of Gori, heading north toward South Ossetia and Russia. Gori straddles the country's main east-west highway south of South Ossetia, the separatist region at the heart of the fighting."We are seeing the pullback of Russian troops" from Gori, Georgian security council chief Alexander Lomaia confirmed Friday.An Associated Press reporter in Igoeti, meanwhile, confirmed that Russian forces had pulled up from their former checkpoints around the crossroads village. Igoeti, on the road between Gori and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, had been the Russians' closest position to the Georgian capital.

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