TBILISI -- Government troops were forced to abandon the west Georgian town of Senaki early Saturday after coming under heavy fire from rebel supporters of ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
The retreat came after a string of recent government victories, with troops loyal to Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze recapturing town after town occupied last month in a lightning campaign by the 'Zviadist' rebels.
The government's defeat at Senaki foiled Tbilisi's plans to seize the nearby rebel stronghold of Zugdidi, which Gamsakhurdia returned to last month after 20 months' exile to lead the anti-government revolt.
The Interfax news agency said rebels bombarded residential districts of Senaki from artillery and Grad multiple rocket launchers Friday, killing and wounding several civilians and forcing Georgian troops into retreat.
A small unit of Russian troops that had been guarding the railway line passing through Senaki under an agreement between the Russian and Georgian governments had also withdrawn from the town, Interfax said.
Earlier this month Georgia appealed to its neighbors Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to help safeguard vital transport corridors between the Black Sea port of Poti and Tbilisi, which were threatened by the fighting.
Russia responded by setting up special watches on bridges and tunnels throughout western Georgia and issuing its troops shoot-to-kill orders if faced with terrorists threatening to attack railway lines.
Georgian officials claimed that the pro-Gamsakhurdia rebels are backed by 800 fighters from Georgia's breakaway Black Sea province of Abkhazia and from the north Caucasus region of Russia.
The government in Tbilisi issued a statement late Friday claiming ten busloads of armed gunmen from the anti-Georgian Confederation of Caucasian Peoples had arrived in Zugdidi Thursday from Abkhazia.
Calling the arrival of the fighters 'intervention' in Georgia's affairs, Tbilisi called on Russia 'not to permit an escalation of the aggression, which could lead to a massive new conflict.'
But Abkhazian officials and representatives of the Confederation quoted by Interfax denied their forces were fighting alongside the Zviadists.
Muslim volunteers and mercenaries from Russia's small autonomous republics of the north Caucasus made up almost half of the Abkhazian army which last month drove out the last remaining Georgian troops from Abkhazia.
The Georgian government statement said the Confederation held a session of its parliament in the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi this week, in which plans were announced to incorporate the Black Sea region into a future Caucasian state.
The statement expressed Georgia's indignation 'at the criminal alliance of the confederates with the Abkhazian separatists and also with the extremist forces of the ex-president.'
