From my understanding of news reports ... and I’m learning today ... S. Ossetia already had autonomy. They won in back in 1992 during a war with Georgia and they have been that way since .. until now. Sounds kind of like the Kosovo situation or the Kurdish region of Iraq in the 1990’s. While still technically part of the country in question ... the region was/is autonomous from the rest of the country. Russia had troops / “peacekeepers” in S. Ossetia as part of an agreement with the Georgia government.
more stuff from another site ... unconfirmed:
“Saakashvile said that Georgia is controll of all the Ossetia exept Dhaza region. He said that today around 30 Georgian soldiers were killed in the fighting.”