'They are bombing us into oblivion'

GORI, GEORGIA - Levan Kakashvili has been sleeping under a tree. What used to be his house is now a mound of broken bricks behind a five-story apartment building blackened by Russian bombing raids.

He blames the Russians for his plight, but he blames his own leader, U.S.-backed Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, for giving the Kremlin an excuse to pummel the tiny former Soviet republic in the widening, four-day-old conflict that began over control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

"I'm very angry with him," said Kakashvili as he slapped water from an outdoor spigot on his face and wiped the dust off his shoes. "He knew that if he hit Tskhinvali [the South Ossetian capital], the Russians would hit Georgia. Now they are bombing us into oblivion."

Hours before reports that this city had fallen to Russian forces Monday, Georgians in Gori were stuffing into their cars whatever belongings they could salvage from the rubble of their apartments -- winter coats, kitchen utensils, bath towels -- and leaving.

And as they evacuated, they said they have lost confidence in their 40-year-old president, who only five years ago embraced President Bush and put his country on the path of democratic reform and an alliance with the West.

Where is the West?

Many said they were equally disheartened by the lack of intervention from the United States and Europe Union to bring an end to the hostilities.

Avtandil Sisuashvili, 72, was among them. "We need to know whether we are still under Moscow's rule or whether we are protected by the West," said Sisuashvili, standing inside his apartment, strewn with broken glass shattered by the bombing's shock waves. "We're not sure anymore whether the West defends us. Russia feels like it can do whatever it wants. We don't feel safe anymore."

Tsisto Tetruashvili sobbed as she scanned the scorched apartment buildings in her block.

"They bombed this morning again," she said, wiping tears away with a small blue handkerchief. "My son drives an ambulance, and every day he takes the dead and wounded to the local hospital.

"Saakashvili doesn't do anything but talk," continued Tetruashvili, 62. "If he had really done something, we wouldn't have so many dead and wounded. We worry that Gori will be destroyed just like Tskhinvali was."

Makuala Gulisashvili, 60, spent the morning filling plastic bags and flour sacks with what little she could salvage from her apartment, now a tangle of twisted beams and rubble. In her sacks were a few toys, spatulas and pillows. She said she once felt Saakashvili was a refreshing change for Georgia. "I can't feel good about him anymore," she said. "Everything that has happened here is his fault."

Americans getting out

With the conflict escalating, the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, was helping to evacuate any Americans who wanted to get out.

Holding bottles of water and bags of bread, about 130 people stood in muggy heat, waiting to board tour buses that would ferry them to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

Russian bombers had hit the city's central aviation radar tower earlier in the day, prompting most airlines that had not already canceled flights to do so.

The Americans boarding the buses were joined by a few Canadians and other non-U.S. citizens.

Martha Tappen, 48, of Minneapolis, said she would come back as soon as she could. An archaeologist who has been coming here for 12 years, she lashed out at her own country for what she said was its abandonment of an ally. "Georgia has been such a staunch supporter of America that America owes it to Georgia to help in this situation. It's our responsibility to help the Georgians and make sure Russia does not occupy them," she said.

The Washington Post contributed to this report.