Mindzayev described the situation in the city Saturday as "complicated and nervous." He said that there were many unexploded shells laying on the ground. He also accused Georgian agents of shooting at people in the city, a claim that could not be independently confirmed.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry troops were erecting a camp near the scorched shell of the South Ossetian parliament building. For the first time in days, there were more cars on the street than tanks.

Farther south, the Russian presence in Gori is strategically critical: The city sits along Georgia's only significant east-west highway, allowing the Russians effectively to split the nation in two.

As in many parts of Georgia, aid has been slow to come. On Thursday, staff from the United Nations refugee agency and its World Food Program hoped to enter Gori to assess whether it was safe to deliver humanitarian aid.

The situation turned ugly. South Ossetian militiamen appeared, pointing weapons, and began shoving civilians and shouting at people to leave the area.

Georgian police had come to enter Gori but turned back when confrontation developed between the Russian military and the Georgian army.

On Friday, Russian military vehicles were blocking the eastern road into the city, although they allowed in one Georgia bus filled with loaves of bread.

Garadzim Tamgiashvili, 46, an unemployed electrician with graying red hair, said there was a lot of looting in the city by South Ossetians and Russians before the Russian military arrived. He said they killed civilians.

He said the Russian soldiers told him they planned to "give it to the Americans."

"We know this is a war between the West and Russia," he said.

Residents reported atrocities in the villages between Gori and Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian provincial capital. Outside Gori, an Associated Press reporter saw a burning wheat field. In the village of Tirdznise, the body of a Georgian soldier lay swollen in the heat.

But for the moment, Gori itself seemed to be a showcase. The Russian troops had stopped the looting, restored order.

One of the few younger women left was Iya Kinvilashvili, 30, the owner of a now-empty shop. Standing next to a church that has organized handouts of bread and flour, she said the Russians were behaving well.

"When is peace coming?" she asked. "We only want peace. We never wanted this war.