Terror war expands to Georgia
U.S. sends troops to former Soviet state to take on al-Qaida

Two U.S. aircraft landed in Georgia yesterday, likely setting the stage for a new U.S.-led counterterrorism operation against al-Qaida and Chechen militants in the Pankisi Gorge.
A U.S. military presence in Georgia – in addition to the deployment in Afghanistan – will dramatically weaken Russia's strategic positions along its southern borders and push Russian forces out of former Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Two U.S. Air Force craft carrying about 40 U.S. military personnel landed in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet state of Georgia, sources from Georgia's Interior Ministry and elsewhere tell STRATFOR. According to yesterday's edition of Russian newspaper Nezavisimoe Voennoye Obozrenie, the personnel include Special Forces troops, who specialize in counterterrorism operations, and Air Force logistics personnel normally based at Incirlik, Turkey.