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World - Europe

NATO: Oil refineries, key military targets hit

NATO attack
Serbian TV broadcasts images of what it said is the third NATO attack on the country's main oil refineries
related videoRELATED VIDEO
CNN's Alessio Vinci reports on Day 25 of NATO strikes (April 18)
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CNN's Brent Sadler reports on events in Belgrade
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       Windows Media Real

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InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
The Kosovo refugees

Protesting the NATO strikes

Devastation of the Kosovo capital

The Serbs and Kosovo
 ALSO
Clinton says U.S. could not let history forget Kosovo Albanians

Pentagon: NATO played wrong pilot tape in convoy incident

Macedonia fears KLA recruting from refugee camps

 MAPS
Gen. Wesley Clark describes NATO air campaign
 

Reports: Kosovars forced into chain gangs


In this story:

Britain: 40,000 Serb troops in Kosovo

Mass graves and red jackets

Land mine kills 5 refugees

More questions about convoy attack

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



April 18, 1999
Web posted at: 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO officials said Sunday that its latest airstrikes on Yugoslavia hit oil refineries in Serbia and key military targets in Kosovo, including 13 armored vehicles.

Yugoslavia now has no functioning crude oil refining capacity, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said, after the 25th day of NATO airstrikes hit oil refineries in Pancevo, outside Belgrade, and in Novi Sad.

NATO also said it has reports that Serb police are pressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo into chain gangs to work in coal mines and dig mass graves for the victims of the Yugoslav government's campaign against ethnic Albanians in the province.

New waves of Kosovo refugees poured into neighboring Albania and Macedonia over the weekend, after they were pushed out of their villages by Serb forces, Shea said.

NATO pilots report "a hell of a lot of smoke" over Kosovo from burning towns, Shea said.

The Yugoslav media on Sunday reported NATO strikes in a number of other areas.

At Batajnica, 12 miles north of Belgrade, Serb television showed pictures of what it said was residential housing hit Saturday night local time. The report said a number of people were wounded including a 3-year-old girl.

Britain: 40,000 Serb troops in Kosovo

British military officials estimated Sunday that Yugoslavia has about 40,000 troops in Kosovo, supported by 300 tanks, plus armored personnel carriers and artillery.

Those forces have been operating extensively in southern, central and western Kosovo, along the province's border with Albania, NATO reported.

"Evidence of ethnic cleansing and further atrocity is apparent through the area of Serb activity," said Brig. Gen. Giuseppe Marani, a NATO military spokesman.

protestors
Serbian Americans hold protests over the NATO bombings  

Meanwhile, pockets of the ethnic Albanian rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army continue to fight Yugoslav forces in the province.

The KLA "may control little terrain now, but it retains a capacity to harass Yugoslav forces," Shea said.

Mass graves and red jackets

Numerous refugees report that Serb police in Kosovo are forcing ethnic Albanian men to wear red jackets and work in grave digging chain gangs, Marani said.

"The use of these men in red to dig graves is supported by imagery evidence, which has already identified 40 mass graves in Kosovo," Marani said, referring to NATO aerial reconnaissance photos.

The largely Muslim ethnic Albanians are burying their dead pointed toward Islam's holy city of Mecca, Marani said.

"Despite being forced to do this gruesome task, the Albanians are clearly trying to bury the victims of (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic with respect," Marani said.

He also said Kosovar men and boys are being used to mine coal for a power plant outside Pristina, the provincial capital.

Land mine kills 5 refugees

NATO estimated that as many as 200,000 refugees were heading for the borders of Albania and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia over the weekend.

Five ethnic Albanians were killed early Sunday when their vehicle hit a land mine in Kosovo, 20 meters before it would have crossed into Albania.

mass graves
NATO says these aerial photos show evidence of mass graves  

Andrea Angeli, a spokesman for international monitors, told CNN the accident occurred on the main road used by refugees coming into Albania.

The incident prompted officials to close the border crossing at Morina, Albania, where thousands of refugees have massed in the cold rain.

More questions about convoy attack

NATO spokesmen continued to face tough questions from reporters about last week's attack on a convoy near Djakovica.

Yugoslav authorities said that several NATO attacks on civilian convoys killed as many as 85 ethnic Albanians last Wednesday.

NATO admitted that one of its pilots had mistakenly dropped a bomb on a civilian vehicle near Djakovica. The alliance has fended off detailed questions about the incident, saying an investigation is continuing.

land mine accident
A main border crossing into Albania was closed Sunday after a land mine killed five refugees nearby  

Adding to the confusion was a statement from the Pentagon on Saturday that NATO played an audiotape from a pilot not involved in the bombing of the civilian vehicle when it accepted blame for the incident.

Marani said NATO played the audiotape "to clarify what was the process, the procedure of a pilot involved in an action of that type."

NATO did not mean to imply that the pilot was involved in the hit on the civilian vehicle, he said.

NATO's commanding general, Wesley Clark, said Saturday that the truth may never be completely clear.

"I have sifted through the continuing reports of the incident and what happened that day. I am astonished by the fog (of confusion) and there's no way, without having been on the ground, to really determine what happened," Clark said.

Correspondents Ben Wedeman and Brent Sadler contributed to this report.



RELATED STORIES:
Five ethnic Albanians killed when vehicle hits land mine
April 18, 1999
U.S. holding Yugoslav officer as POW
April 16, 1999
Macedonia fears it could become KLA staging ground
April 16, 1999
Official Pentagon statement on captured Yugoslav soldier
April 16, 1999
Yugoslavia rejects U.N. peace plan for Kosovo
April 16, 1999
Active duty ahead for thousands of reservists
April 16, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites
  • Kosovo

Yugoslavia:
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News


Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosova Liberation Peace Movement
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis

Relief:
  • Kosovar doctor helps refugees one at a time
  • Mercy International USA
  • Donations for Kosovo Refugees
  • International Rescue Committee
  • Unicef USA
  • Doctors Without Borders
  • World Vision
  • CARE: The Kosovo Crisis
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Disaster Relief from DisasterRelief.org
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page


Media:
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • Prayers for peace
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