Serbian TV building damage RELATED VIDEO: CNN's Jane Arraf reports on one family's ordeal (April 22) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Nic Robertson reports on the opposition in Montenegro (April 22) 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: Images of NATO bomb attack on Serbian TV headquarters The Kosovo refugees The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO: Kosovo refugees tell of 100-mile trek to Albanian border U.S.: Serb forces weaker but 'still responding'  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS: NATO officials describe the air campaign  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: NATO at 50

In this story: Russia: Milosevic to allow U.N. force NATO destroys Milosevic home NATO: Yugoslav supplies halved NATO leaders to review plans at summit RELATED STORIES, SITES

April 23, 1999
Web posted at: 5:22 a.m. EDT (0922 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- A NATO cruise missile strike on state-run Serbian television headquarters in Belgrade has left several dead and many more injured in an attack that has been threatened for days.

Serb officials said 15 people were killed in the attack. NATO could not confirm the casualties.

CNN correspondent Brent Sadler reported seeing two bodies pulled from the rubble as rescue workers used bulldozers to reach other bodies trapped beneath the wreckage of the building.

Sadler said the attack, which destroyed what NATO claimed was the nerve center of Serb propaganda, left behind "a scene of complete devastation".

The station was off the air for six hours. It resumed broadcasting from an unknown location shortly after 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. EDT)

Sadler said firefighters were continuing to douse flames hours after the U.S. Navy tomahawk missiles slammed into the rear of the building.

A NATO official, who asked not to be named, said the attack did not involve cruise missiles, but would not say what weapons or what type of aircraft were used.

Serbian television is the main broadcaster of news and entertainment in Yugoslavia. It was broadcasting an interview with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the time of the attack.

Officials at the studio complex said they had taken out 15 bodies and feared more were still under the rubble.

"I can see body parts inside the crushed rubble, some of them are covered by green tarpaulins," Sadler said.

NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Michael Kaemmerer confirmed the strikes, but said he had no way of knowing if reports of deaths are true.

"We try to minimize casualties and we try to target facilities when they are not occupied...if there are any casualties we regret them, but this is part of the power structure and his (Milosevic's) propaganda machine and we will continue to strike them."

Serbian television is considered a pillar of power for the Serb-led Yugoslav government.

The attack came in a night of what Sadler said was the heaviest on Belgrade since bombings began a month ago.

Immediately after the television studio was hit, the network's signal, monitored at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, turned to snow. Later, a signal returned with the network airing its slate, or identification, RTS Television Belgrade, before normal broadcasting resumed.

Novosti, a Yugoslav newspaper, and Beograd.com, a Web site based in Boston that is run by Yugoslav expatriates, posted photos of the damage.

Officials also said a main police station was attacked and "badly damaged" as a result of ongoing NATO attacks.

Russia: Milosevic to allow U.N. force

Earlier Thursday, former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said Milosevic had accepted the idea of allowing an international force in Kosovo under a U.N. mandate.

However, official Yugoslav sources told CNN the plan calls for an "unarmed presence" that would exclude NATO countries with the possible exception of Greece.

NATO previously has insisted that any peacekeeping force in Kosovo be armed and under NATO command. Milosevic has so far rejected NATO's demands to pull his forces out of Kosovo and grant autonomy to ethnic Albanians in the province.

Following a meeting with Milosevic in Belgrade, Chernomyrdin said Yugoslavia was willing to accept an international body, but "what kind of international forces they will be or from which countries -- this is yet to be discussed."

Chernomyrdin said under the agreement, Russia would participate in the Kosovo force.

U.S. President Bill Clinton reacted cautiously upon hearing the report, saying he didn't know much about the proposal, but "if there is an offer for a genuine security force, that's the first time that Mr. Milosevic has done that, and that represents, I suppose, some step forward."

Later, a U.S. official dismissed the proposal, calling it "a classic Milosevic propaganda ploy designed to divide the allies on the eve of the NATO summit."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was encouraged by news that Yugoslavia would accept an international presence in Kosovo and "eagerly awaits the details," according to a statement through his spokesman.

A statement from Milosevic's office made no mention of an international force and gave no indication the Yugoslav president had softened his hardline stance.

It said Milosevic and Chernomyrdin "condemned the aggression of (the) NATO pact ... and stressed that it must be stopped without further delay."

"Yugoslavia and Russia are firmly determined to jointly work for a peaceful resolution of the problems in Kosovo, and that can be achieved only through political means," the statement said.

NATO destroys Milosevic home

Overnight Thursday, NATO jets bombed one of Milosevic's Belgrade homes in an example of "increased allied pressure on the very center, the central nerve system of the regime that controls military and security forces," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said.

Bacon said the alliance was not targeting Milosevic or his family, but, "we believe there were bunkers in this facility and in many other facilities."

A Web site shows a photo of what it says is the aftermath of the strike on Serbian TV

The residence, one of two homes Milosevic keeps in the Yugoslav capital, is located in Belgrade's luxurious Dedinje district. The attack came at 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported.

Serbian TV showed footage of what it said was the home. It showed significant damage to the residence in a tree-lined neighborhood near the grave of former Yugoslav communist leader Marshal Tito.

U.S. and British officials said Thursday that Milosevic's home contained a bunker and communications facilities that made it a legitimate military target.

"The house has been used as a command-and-control facility, and therefore it became a part of the military machine," Armed Forces Minister Doug Henderson said.

Asked if NATO considered the Yugoslav leader a target, Henderson said, "The Milosevic military machine is the target, and there is no other target."

But Nebojsa Vujovic, a Yugoslav foreign ministry spokesman, said bombing the Yugoslav leader's home served no military purpose.

"There were no single elements of so-called or alleged command-and-control centers, no single piece of wire, no single button," Vujovic said.

NATO: Yugoslav supplies halved

NATO air raids have knocked out all of Yugoslavia's oil refining capacity, while damaged road and rail links have cut supplies to the Yugoslav army in Kosovo by half, senior officers said Thursday.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Thomas Wilson, director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the attacks are hurting Yugoslav forces in other ways as well: There are higher desertion rates and fewer reservists showing up for duty.

Wilson said there have been "several hundred" desertions from the Yugoslav forces based in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, alone.

A reported Yugoslav campaign against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo has left dozens of towns and villages razed, he said. Numerous towns -- particularly in central and southwest Kosovo -- have seen more than three-quarters of their buildings destroyed or damaged, he said.

"This is a wanton and indiscriminate destruction of this country's cities and villages," Wilson said. "There is a lot of evidence of mass killing."

Going into the air campaign March 24, NATO allies estimated the Yugoslav army in Kosovo numbered about 40,000 troops, backed up by roughly 400 tanks and armored vehicles.

Wilson said between two-thirds to three-quarters of those have been in the field, and about 10 to 20 percent of those have been hit by allied bombs.

NATO leaders to review plans at summit

As NATO leaders gather for the alliance's 50th anniversary summit, which begins in Washington on Friday, NATO Secretary- General Javier Solana authorized allied planners to "update the assessment" for the possible use of ground troops in Yugoslavia.

Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, will review the allies' contingency plans.

Despite that, Henderson said, the allies remain committed to the air campaign.

"The difficulty of a land force invasion of Kosovo against an undegraded Serb military machine are formidable, but all options are always kept under review," he said.

Early estimates suggest that more than 200,000 NATO troops would be required for a ground war in Yugoslavia. Military officials told CNN that number likely would be higher after Clark's reassessment.

Sources in Washington said his review is routine, and in no way suggests a move toward seeking approval from the 19-member military alliance for a ground combat operation.

The White House said Thursday it remained opposed to putting U.S. or NATO ground troops in Kosovo, except as a peacekeeping force.

Correspondents Jonathan Karl, John King and Brent Sadler contributed to this report.