Georgian troops returning from Iraq

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) - Georgian troops began flying back to their home country from Iraq on Sunday as the former Soviet republic battled Russian troops in the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Georgian and U.S. officials said.

The first of those troops returned to Georgia's capital on Sunday, Georgia's government said, but an Interior Ministry spokesman would not specify how many had returned.

Georgia has asked the United States for an airlift to carry home its 2,000 troops, which had been stationed near the Iranian border in Iraq. In Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman confirmed that those flights were were under way Sunday.