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World - Europe

Belgrade braces for new attacks

New alert in Bosnia

Belgrade
Serbian TV broadcast damage in Belgrade reportedly from NATO air strikes
 ALSO:
Refugee crisis builds as Serbs reportedly target Kosovars

Clinton orders reinforcements to Macedonia

Milosevic gets bird's eye view of the new NATO

InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
NATO strikes Yugoslavia: Day One

 MESSAGE BOARD
Crisis in Kosovo
 

March 27, 1999
Web posted at: 9:59 a.m. EST (1459 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Yugoslavia's capital braced for a fourth day of NATO airstrikes as allied troops in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina watched the skies for new incursions by Yugoslav aircraft.

Friday's attacks found targets around Belgrade, sending fireballs shooting into the night sky and shattering windows around the city. The raids were the heaviest and closest to the city's center since airstrikes began Wednesday.

In three days of attacks, Belgrade has become a shadow of its former self. Main streets are largely deserted.

Many in Belgrade took cover in underground shelters. Their fears were compounded by reports that a factory had been hit and was spewing toxic fumes into the air.

Yugoslav authorities insisted it was the result of a strike on a civilian pharmaceutical plant: NATO said the escaping fumes may have come from a factory that produced missile and rocket fuel.

Another NATO strike set fire to a forest close to a popular Belgrade suburb.

NATO resolve 'absolute'

NATO hopes the raids will force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to sign a peace agreement that will end a year of ethnic strife in the Serb province of Kosovo.

NATO officials say the Yugoslav offensive in Kosovo must stop before the bombing ends.

"NATO's resolve to continue this operation until our objectives are met remains absolute," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels on Saturday.

Yugoslavian media claim the bomb and missile attacks have inflicted numerous -- but unspecified -- casualties. Authorities in Belgrade claim the attacks have created a humanitarian catastrophe with damage to homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure such as water supply networks.

bunker
Marines head to protective bunnkers in Bosnia after the approach of two Serb helicopters triggered air raid sirens  

Fuel supplies are restricted to a few priority users such as hospitals and public transportation. City buses and trams are still running, but few people are traveling.

New alert for NATO's Bosnian force

NATO forces in Bosnia, meanwhile, were on alert Saturday after reports that two Yugoslav helicopters crossed the border Saturday.

The helicopters left Bosnian airspace without incident, but not before triggering air raid sirens at the NATO base at Tuzla, a spokesman for NATO's Stabilization Force in Bosnia said.

Saturday's alert at Tuzla came after NATO fighters shot down two Yugoslav jet fighters that crossed into Bosnia on Friday evening. The pilots of those planes were unaccounted for early Saturday, said U.S. Army Maj. Tom Evans, an SFOR spokesman.

Mig
Wreckage from a Yugoslavian MiG-29 shot down after it violated Bosnian air space  

"We are working with local police to attempt to find the pilots," Evans said.

NATO says troops could be next targets

The forays into Bosnia come as reports mounted that the Serbian-led military has intensified assaults against Kosovar Albanian guerrillas and civilians.

U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, said Friday that new NATO attacks would focus on Serb troops. He said the current campaign was "systematically and progressively" wearing down Yugoslavia's military capability and that troop columns could be hit next.

But Clark said NATO air power alone could not stop the Yugoslav army and Serb paramilitaries from carrying out attacks in Kosovo.

Correspondents Brent Sadler and Tom Mintier contributed to this report.


RELATED STORIES:
Pentagon: 'We have made progress'
March 26, 1999
Greeks angered by NATO strikes clash with riot police
March 26, 1999
Security Council rejects Russian call to halt bombing
March 26, 1999
Russia expels NATO staff; Greece calls for bombing halt
March 26, 1999
Serb attacks reported on Kosovo villages
March 26, 1999
NATO: Yugo ground troops may be targeted
March 26, 1999
Poll: Americans split on NATO airstrikes
March 25, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Kosovo from space (September 1997)
Independent Yugoslav radio station B92
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Facts
Kosova Crisis Center
NATO Official Homepage
Kosovo and Metohia
U.S. Navy
  • Photo of missile firing Wednesday
Kosova Liberation Peace Movement
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
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