Serbian television shows a second bridge reportedly destroyed in a NATO air attack on Novi Sad
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Newborns wrapped in blankets and their mothers were evacuated after missiles fell about 20 meters from a maternity ward, Serbian TV reported
IMAGE GALLERY: Belgrade cruise missile strike The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO: Montenegrin political parties agree to resist military takeover Tens of thousands of refugees stranded at Kosovo borders Pentagon not reassured by Yugoslavs on captured troops Government takes over independent Yugoslav radio station  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS NATO officials describe attacks from day one through day ten

April 3, 1999
Web posted at: 9:32 p.m. EST (0232 GMT)

In this story: U.S. aircraft carrier to arrive Monday NATO statement triggers confusion NATO: Kosovo could be emptied in 20 days Anger, defiance after central Belgrade bombed NATO hits infantry staging units in Kosovo NATO blows up rail line to blunt move on Montenegro RELATED STORIES, SITES

NOVI SAD, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Yugoslav officials say NATO cruise missiles slammed into two major bridges over the Danube River on Saturday night, as the NATO air assault moved toward its 12th day.

One of the bridges was in Yugoslavia's second-largest city, Novi Sad. Eyewitnesses said rescue divers searched for one or two cars that may have been on the bridge when it was hit, and Serbian media said several people had been injured. There was no official or independent confirmation of those reports.

The second bridge was at Backa Palanka, 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Novi Sad. That bridge links Serbia to Croatia.

At the Aviano Air Base in Italy, large fleets of NATO aircraft could be seen taking off beginning at sunset Saturday, more than during previous days of the NATO airstrikes. They included F-15s, F-16s, F-117A stealth fighters and support aircraft.

The destruction of another bridge in Novi Sad means that two of the city's three bridges over the Danube have been hit. On Wednesday, a NATO missile crumbled another bridge into the Danube, blocking a major waterway from the interior of Europe to the Black Sea.

The city depends heavily on the bridges to carry not only traffic and commerce but also electric cables and water pipes from one side of the city to the other. After Saturday's attack, power went out in some parts of the city.

U.S. aircraft carrier to arrive Monday

The Pentagon announced Saturday that it would move the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its support ships into the Adriatic Sea by Monday to use against Yugoslavia. The ship carries 50 combat aircraft.

In addition, another 13 F-117A's are being deployed from their base in New Mexico to Europe for possible use in the campaign.

The first four F-117A's left Saturday night. One will go to Aviano to replace a plane downed over Yugoslavia a week ago, while the other 12 are destined for Spangdahlem, Germany. About 250 support personnel will travel to Germany by transport plane, according to U.S. Air Force officials.

NATO statement triggers confusion

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, a statement made Saturday about NATO's conditions for ending the bombing led to some confusion.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said NATO's position is that the Yugoslav government must pull its military and police forces from Kosovo and let refugees return, escorted by a NATO-led international peacekeeping force, before airstrikes will stop.

This was interpreted in some quarters as signaling that NATO-led peace-enforcing troops might go into Kosovo before the Yugoslavs agree to a long-term peace deal as set out in the Rambouillet accord.

But while the Yugoslav government would not necessarily have to sign on to the Rambouillet peace agreement before airstrikes stop, Shea said, "NATO's ultimate objective is a political settlement based on the Rambouillet agreement."

NATO officials insisted later that Shea's comments did not signal a shift in policy, that NATO had not decided to prepare a ground offensive -- and that the Rambouillet accord was not dead.

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook said NATO officials "do want to see negotiations on the framework of Rambouillet, but I think we all have to recognize to some extent that the events of the last week have made it difficult to go back simply to those accords as they were."

NATO: Kosovo could be emptied in 20 days

Shea said NATO estimates that 765,000 ethnic Albanians have been forced from Kosovo, out of a total Albanian population of 1.8 million.

"At this rate, the Serb security forces would have more or less emptied Kosovo (of ethnic Albanians) in 10 to 20 days from now," Shea said.

The Kosovar Albanian refugees in Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania are staying in makeshift camps with no latrines and trying to keep warm and dry during intermittent rain showers and near-freezing nighttime temperatures. Some have scrambled and fought over scraps of bread.

Overwhelmed by the human tide, Macedonia closed its borders Saturday. U.S. President Bill Clinton appealed to the country's leaders to reconsider, promising that the United States and NATO would help as much as possible.

Anger, defiance after central Belgrade bombed

On Saturday, Yugoslavs reacted angrily and defiantly to the first direct attack on the center of their capital, Belgrade, during 11 days of NATO bombing.

In the early hours Saturday, NATO missiles slammed into the interior ministry buildings of both the Serbian and federal Yugoslav governments, destroying them in towers of flame shown on Serbian television.

Those ministries control the country's special police forces, which compose a large part of government forces in Kosovo. Serbian officials termed the destruction a criminal act.

"Our determination to defend ourselves against foreign aggression is absolute," said Vladislav Jovanovic, the charge d'affairs at the Yugoslav mission to the United Nations, in an interview with CNN. "There is no amount of destruction which can change ... our determination."

Many Serbs on the streets of Belgrade wear bull's-eye targets, their new statement of courage.

NATO hits infantry staging units in Kosovo

At a briefing Saturday, Air Commodore David Wilby, a British member of NATO's staff, said that in addition to lobbing missiles into Belgrade, NATO took aim at Yugoslav troops inside Kosovo.

"We have moved our thinking process and striking process up to the heart of the matter," Wilby said.

Though bad weather hindered manned bombing missions, Wilby said NATO jets struck three staging areas for mechanized infantry along a road in southwestern Kosovo, as well as the headquarters of an intelligence unit and early-warning radar facilities.

"I can assure you we have put a lot of ordnance on targets despite the weather and are moving relentlessly until the end," he said. The attacks were carried out with no NATO losses, Wilby said.

Television reports from Belgrade said there were no injuries from the raids on the ministries, indicating that NATO plans to avoid civilian casualties were successful, Wilby said.

NATO blows up rail line to blunt move on Montenegro

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, meanwhile, warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to take no action against Montenegro, the smaller of the two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation.

Yugoslavia's federal government replaced several army commanders in Montenegro this week. "There is growing evidence that President Milosevic may be planning a coup against the existing, legitimate government," Wilby said.

On Saturday, fears of a Serb move on Montenegro led the NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia to blow up part of a railway line that runs through Bosnian Serb territory into Yugoslavia.

The NATO Stabilization Force in Bosnia, known as SFOR, said it would reopen the line "upon the cessation of current hostilities."

Montenegro's government has tried to declare the republic neutral in the conflict between Milosevic's government and NATO. But NATO bombs have fallen on targets in Montenegro, and Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic has criticized both Milosevic's action and the NATO strikes.

"We are very closely watching for any movement of Serb military forces either within or towards Montenegro," Shea said. He declined to elaborate "for the time being."

Correspondents Patricia Kelly, Brent Sadler, John King and Bill Delaney contributed to this report.

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