Smoke rises from a Novi Sad oil refinery bombed by NATO Tuesday morning RELATED VIDEO: British officials vow to stand firm in NATO bombing campaign. CNN's Margaret Lowrie has the story. (May 4) Windows Media 28K 80K A Muslim country is helping build a refugee camp in Albania. Because the country is the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, the site is being called the "Hilton of camps." CNN's Jane Arraf checks it out. (May 4) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K The U.N. says the Serbs have started a new ethnic-cleansing tactic: deporting one family member so others will follow. CNN's Nic Robertson talks with a family about their experience. (May 4) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY: Latest from Kosovo The Kosovo refugees The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO: Chernomyrdin calls for greater U.N. role in Kosovo diplomacy Solana stresses NATO resolve in Kosovo conflict Yugoslav's Jovanovic blames NATO for humanitarian crisis  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Where are they going?  CNN WORLD REPORT CONFERENCE: Follow CNN's 1999 World Report Conference this week in Atlanta and New York  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS: NATO officials describe the air campaign  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: NATO at 50 Strike on Yugoslavia

May 4, 1999
Web posted at: 12:43 p.m. EDT (1643 GMT)

In this story: Airfields, command facilities hit MiG-29 downed in dogfight General: Campaign not as strong as it could be NATO: No evidence allied plane hit bus Diplomatic initiative continues RELATED STORIES, SITES

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Saying they had the Yugoslav army pinned down, NATO claimed its best success yet Tuesday against ground forces in Kosovo and announced the downing of a Yugoslav MiG-29 fighter.

The attacks ushered in the 41st day of NATO's Operation Allied Force with strikes on 40 fixed targets.

"No part of the Yugoslav army was spared," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said at a briefing Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium.

Shea said NATO forces were able to "pin those forces down, cut them off from their supply chain and resupply routes and to take them out progressively and deliberately."

That assessment was seconded by military spokesman Gen. Walter Jertz, who said NATO had essentially "pinned down" Yugoslav ground forces, making it impossible for them to move in any significant way.

Jertz, who characterized the operations over the last 24 hours as the most successful to date against field forces in Kosovo, said NATO pilots had hit the 125th motorized brigade of the Yugoslav army in western Kosovo and the 233rd motorized brigade in eastern Kosovo "especially hard."

But he admitted that 11,600 refugees had been put on trains and sent to Macedonia by Yugoslav forces.

Airfields, command facilities also hit

In addition to field forces, Shea said the overnight attacks hit five airfields, along with seven lines of communication, five army facilities, two command facilities, and six command, control and communications facilities.

Shea also said five petroleum facilities were targeted as part of NATO's ongoing effort to cut off Yugoslavia fuel supplies.

While he did not specify the location of those targets, Yugoslav National Radio reported a barrage of attacks on oil refineries in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, and the small town of Pozego in the overnight raids.

Serbian TV said two missiles struck a television station in Novi Sad, causing extensive damage. A bridge over the Danube River in Ostruznica, near Belgrade, was hit, as was a bridge over the Morava River in Grdelicka Valley, about 50 miles south of the city of Nis, the reports said.

Power outages were still widespread across much of Yugoslavia Tuesday morning, the result of a NATO attack Sunday against main power grids.

MiG-29 downed in dogfight

During the course of the overnight attacks, a U.S. F-16 shot down a Yugoslav MiG-29 fighter near the Yugoslav-Bosnian border, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon sources said the MiG-29 approached to challenge the F-16 and was shot down. The U.S. plane was unharmed.

While there has been little in the way of air-to-air combat during the conflict with Yugoslavia, NATO has estimated that it has destroyed more than half of Yugoslavia's best fighters, mostly by catching them on the ground during bombing raids.

General: Campaign not as strong as it could be

Gen. Klaus Naumann, who is retiring this week as NATO's military committee chairman, said Tuesday that the alliance's airstrikes, while successful, had been weakened by having to avoid collateral damage in an effort to protect civilians.

"The Serbs are hiding their military forces and artillery in Kosovo next to civilian buildings, next to churches, to mosques. We don't attack them under these circumstances, although we technically could do it," Naumann said. "This would destroy something we don't want to destroy."

In addition, Naumann said NATO lost some of its edge at the start of the bombing campaign, because Yugoslavia knew well in advance that it was coming.

Nevertheless, he said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic should not take comfort from the admissions.

"The air campaign is working," Naumann said. "There is no reason to change our strategy, but every reason for President Milosevic to rethink his. After all, he cannot win, and he knows it."

NATO: No evidence allied plane hit bus

NATO says there's no evidence it was responsible for alleged attack on this bus in Kosovo

In another development, NATO said there was no evidence it was responsible for an attack Monday on a bus in Kosovo that Yugoslav media said killed 20 civilians and injured 43 others.

"We have no indication at all that our aircraft were involved in that incident," Shea said.

He said that conclusion was reached after conducting a comprehensive review of military activities, looking at combat footage, talking with air crews and reviewing its target lists.

"Although we had several aircraft in the general area, NATO can find no evidence to link our activities with this alleged incident," the 19-member alliance said in a statement.

Diplomatic initiative continues

On the diplomatic front, Russian envoy Victor Chernomyrdin requested and was granted another round of talks with U.S. officials Tuesday as he continued to press for a diplomatic solution to the NATO strikes.

During a day of intense diplomatic activity Monday, U.S. President Bill Clinton said current initiatives from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic fall far short of what it will take to end the NATO strikes. However, Clinton held open the possibility that NATO would consider a pause in the bombing campaign "under the right circumstances."

"Our air campaign cannot stop until Mr. Milosevic shows that he is ready to end the nightmare for the people of Kosovo," Clinton said.

Correspondent Carl Rochelle contributed to this report.

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