A force of approximately 80 Georgian soldiers from a U.S.-trained battalion has been dispatched to join a peacekeeping battalion currently deployed in the unrecognized breakaway Republic of South Ossetia on July 10. Since April 2002, the United States has been conducting a specialized program, known as the Train-and-Equip Program, designed to bolster the Georgian military\'s counterinsurgency capability. Officials of the Georgian Defense Ministry are cited as reporting that the commandos will be deployed at the checkpoints in Nikozi and Kurti and will conduct joint patrols together with the Russian and Ossetian peacekeepers currently in the area. (Civil Georgia)