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South Ossetians celebrated their Independence Day with a military parade Saturday, rolling what Russian media said were American-made Jeeps and Georgian tanks through their breakaway capital in an apparent display of captured military booty.

MOSCOW (AP) - South Ossetians celebrated their Independence Day with a military parade Saturday, rolling what Russian media said were American-made Jeeps and Georgian tanks through their breakaway capital in an apparent display of captured military booty.

The parade in Tskhinvali came less than a month after Russia recognized South Ossetia's long-standing claim of independence from Georgia, after a five-day war in which Georgian forces were routed by a dominant Russian military.

Residents of the battered city lined streets to watch Saturday.

"For 18 years the people of South Ossetia, day after day, have been declaring and proving their right to an equal place among other nations of the world," South Ossetia's leader, Eduard Kokoity, told the crowd in remarks broadcast on state-run Russian television.

On Sept. 20, 1990, as the Soviet Union was breaking up, the parliament of South Ossetia then a nominally autonomous region within the Soviet republic of Georgia declared the creation of a separate South Ossetian republic and adopted a declaration of sovereignty.

South Ossetia broke from Georgian government control in a war that followed.

Amid increasing Russian support and mounting exchanges of fire, Georgian forces launched a large-scale offensive targeting Tskhinvali on Aug. 7. Russian forces immediately repelled the attack and drove deep into Georgia, and Moscow has strengthened its control over South Ossetia ever since.

The conflict has dimmed Georgia's hopes of regaining control over South Ossetia and another Russian-backed breakaway region, Abkhazia. Russia's persistent military presence has also raised questions about whether ethnic Georgians driven from their homes in the separatist regions will ever be able to return.

The military parade was featured prominently in newscasts on state-run Russian television. First Channel showed what it said were American-made military Jeeps and an armored vehicle, and the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti said confiscated Georgian tanks also were displayed.

South Ossetian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

By pursuing its first major military action outside its borders since the Soviet collapse and recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations, Russia has put the West on notice that it will be assertive in regions near its borders.

Amid deeply sour relations with the U.S. and Europe, Russian newscasts Saturday also showed President Dmitry Medvedev announcing plans for a major monthlong military exercise beginning Monday.

The Defense Ministry said the exercise would be conducted jointly with the Defense Ministry of Belarus, a small ally sandwiched between Russia and NATO member Poland. Its goal was to prepare Russia's armed forces "for the liquidation of armed conflicts and the provision of strategic stability."

A Defense Ministry announcement suggested the exercise would focus on practice for officers and military planners, and it was unclear whether it would involve much movement of military forces themselves.

But the televised remarks appeared aimed as a message to both Russian citizens and the West that Russia is prepared to fight if necessary.

The Kremlin has bitterly opposed U.S. plans for a missile shield in Central Europe and the prospect of NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western leaders have sought to bring their ex-Soviet republics into the Western alliance.

Medvedev on Friday accused NATO of provoking the war in Georgia, saying that by helping modernize the Georgian military, the U.S. and other Western nations encouraged its leadership to use force in South Ossetia.

He also sneered at U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's accusations that Russia was sliding into irrelevance, saying Moscow would set its own course without isolating itself behind a new Iron Curtain.