F-15C Eagle RELATED VIDEO Watch Defense Department video of a television-guided bomb striking a bridge 3.4 MB / 45 sec. / 240x180 1.4 MB / 45 sec. / 160x120 QuickTime movie Please enable Javascript How effective are NATO's military capabilities? CNN's Jamie McIntyre takes a look (April 9) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Betsy Aaron: Russia sending mixed messages about the NATO mission (April 9) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Correspondent Jonathan Aiken shows how Serbian television is covering the Kosovo conflict (April 9) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY: Burning flags and rock concerts: Protesting the NATO strikes Devastation of Kosovo capital The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO Serb media battles NATO with scenes of destruction Serbs reportedly planting land mines to create Kosovo 'no man's land' Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo U.S. casts doubt on Cuban base as refugee site Clinton: Yugo peace claim is 'illusion'  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS NATO officials describe attacks from day one through day sixteen

April 9, 1999
Web posted at: 7:20 p.m. EDT (2320 GMT)

In this story: Pentagon: Reports of rape, murder 5-point plan could end NATO strikes Cypriot envoy unsuccessful at mediation Britain: Milosevic 'feeling the heat' Fighting erupts on Albanian border UNHCR worried about displaced Kosovars RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With bad weather often cited as an obstacle to the NATO campaign under way in Yugoslavia, six additional F-15C planes are being deployed to Operation Allied Force, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The top-of-the-line fighter is designed to handle all-weather conditions and will increase NATO's combat capacity.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said these planes are separate from a request from NATO's top military commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, for additional warplanes. That request is now under review.

Because of bad weather in the last 24 hours, NATO planes struck only five target sites, the Pentagon said.

U.S. defense officials also said there was no sign of a Yugoslav cease-fire. Maj. Gen. Charles Wald said Yugoslav anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile batteries were both active.

Wald also said Serb forces continued to "move on Albanians in Kosovo" and there were further reports of atrocities.

Bacon said the Pentagon had reports of Kosovo women being raped and murdered in Serb army camps.

"We're getting some very disturbing reports out of Kosovo recently that young Kosovar women are being herded into a Serb army training camp near the town of Dakovica, which is in southwest Kosovo, where they are being raped by troops," Bacon said.

"And we have reports that as many as 20 may have been killed in the course of this," Bacon continued. "This is a very eerie and disturbing echo of documented instances of rape and killing of women in Bosnia during the Bosnia war, and it is obviously outrageous if this is occurring."

The Pentagon said the Yugoslav military is trying to capitalize on NATO's reluctance to hit where there might be high civilian causalities.

"We certainly hear that they have surrounded military vehicles with civilians. They put their military vehicles around schools and hospitals and other places to complicate targeting," said Bacon. "They know that we're trying to hold civilian casualties to minimum, and they're trying to exploit that compassion to their own benefit."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan pleaded with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Friday to withdraw all forces from Kosovo, saying the suffering in the province must come to an end.

Annan said he was "deeply distressed by the tragedy taking place in Kosovo and in the region ... The suffering of innocent civilians should not be further prolonged."

He called on Milosevic to accept the following five-point plan:

• End immediately the campaign of intimidation and expulsion of the civilian population of Kosovo.
• Cease all activities of military and paramilitary forces in Kosovo and withdraw these forces.
• Accept unconditionally the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes.
• Accept the deployment of an international military force to ensure a secure environment for the return of refugees and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid.
• Permit the international community to verify compliance with these undertakings.

U.S. President Bill Clinton said Friday that Milosevic was still continuing his crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and that NATO strikes would therefore continue.

A car factory hit by NATO forces in Kragujevac, Yugoslavia

Shortly after that statement from Washington, a special Cypriot envoy in Belgrade said he had failed to win the release of three U.S. Army soldiers held in Yugoslavia, despite a face-to-face meeting with Milosevic.

NATO warplanes destroyed several armored vehicles, a surface-to-air missile site and other Serb targets in the latest wave of air attacks, said British Air Commodore David Wilby at a NATO news conference in Brussels.

State-controlled media in Serbia reported NATO strikes on Belgrade suburbs and two towns, Pancevo and Kragujevac.

The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency said 100 workers were wounded when the automobile factory Zastava was hit in Kragujevac. Serbian television also said a fuel depot in Smederevo, east of Belgrade, was hit.

Srboljub Stoianovic shows what's left of the house he built 55 years ago in Aleksinac, Yugoslavia

The Pentagon said it has seen indications that the NATO campaign is having an impact.

"We've seen indications that people are resisting call-ups for the reserves," said Bacon.

"We're seeing some signs that people are leaving the country to ride out the war, particularly draft-age or army-age men, leaving to go to other countries in the area to reduce their exposure to being drafted or having to go into combat," he said.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, speaking in London, said Milosevic was "feeling the heat," and Wilby said Serb troops were "digging in" and increasingly attacking on foot.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told CNN there was fighting Friday between Serbian forces and Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas on the Yugoslav-Albanian border.

The fighting was between the KLA on the Albanian side of the border and Yugoslav army forces in Kosovo. The KLA is seeking independence for Kosovo.

The OSCE said the fighting was "more than the usual border incident" and involved light arms and artillery.

NATO officials and the U.N. refugee agency were struggling to keep aid flowing for tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees who fled Kosovo and were living in NATO-run tent cities in Albania and Macedonia.

A young boy and his mother share a snack in a tent camp in Stenkovec, Macedonia

A NATO commander said civilian aid organizations should take over management of the refugee camps as soon as possible.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said Friday she feared for the fate of ethnic Albanians blocked by Yugoslav forces from fleeing Kosovo.

"I am very much concerned for the fate of civilians remaining in Kosovo," she told a news conference in the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

Ogata was asked what her agency could do for those inside Kosovo. She replied that her employees could not return there for security reasons. "I am helpless there," she said.

Correspondents Matthew Chance, Catherine Bond and Betsy Aaron contributed to this report.