Barely a few minutes before dawn on August 8th, 2008, two car bombs, one of them a van packed with explosive, blow up around the military facilities at the southern entrance of the Roki tunnel, connecting South Ossetia with Russia. Minutes later, Georgian Su-25's begin attacking the facilities, using conventional bombs, incendiaries as well as tear gas. Soon after the bombing ceases, Georgian commandos are landed via helicopters close to their target, and, after a brief firefight with the dazzled survivors, manage to secure a perimeter.
With the situation having been somewhat stabilized, other helicopters bring in the second wave of forces, this time engineers. These proceed to blow up both the main and secondary tunnels using large quantities of explosives.
The rest of the invasion goes more or less as OTL (albeit delayed somewhat in order to coordinate with the Roki landings), with Georgian forces advancing on the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali supported by artillery, rocket launchers, armoured cars and a few dozen tanks. They will probably mange to gain control of most of the city within hours.
With no way for Russia to send troops into Ossetia in time, will they still intervene ? And, assuming they still decide to, can Georgia pull of a conquest of Ossetia in time and present a fait accompli to the world ?
With the situation having been somewhat stabilized, other helicopters bring in the second wave of forces, this time engineers. These proceed to blow up both the main and secondary tunnels using large quantities of explosives.
The rest of the invasion goes more or less as OTL (albeit delayed somewhat in order to coordinate with the Roki landings), with Georgian forces advancing on the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali supported by artillery, rocket launchers, armoured cars and a few dozen tanks. They will probably mange to gain control of most of the city within hours.
With no way for Russia to send troops into Ossetia in time, will they still intervene ? And, assuming they still decide to, can Georgia pull of a conquest of Ossetia in time and present a fait accompli to the world ?