>NATO KILLS CIVILIANS ON BRIDGE IN ANOTHER DEADLY BLUNDER
>By Kim Sengupta in Skopje
>Nato was accused of committing another deadly blunder in the Balkan war
>yesterday after a warplane reportedly destroyed a bridge in south-eastern
>Serbia, killing at least 11 civilians and hurling dozens more into the
>river. Authorities in Belgrade said the fighter returned and hit the bridge
>a second time, just as villagers reached the scene to help those hurt in
>the first strike.
>The Serbs said women and children were among the victims. "Many people and
>cars were on the bridge, so there is a great number of injured as well,"
>they said.
>Fifteen boats with rescue teams were searching for victims in the Velika
>Morava river at the town of Varvarin, the Yugoslav news agency said.
>Nato refused initially to be drawn on whether the attack at Varvarin was
>another disastrous error. The alliance earlier admitted mistaken attacks on
>a refugee column in Kosovo and the rocketing of a train in southern Serbia.
>The Nato spokesman Jamie Shea, said in Brussels: "A bridge is an important
>military target because they are responsible for reinforcement and resupply
>in Kosovo". If the blunder is confirmed, international pressure will
>increase on Nato to stop the attacks at least while diplomatic negotiations
>appear to yield results.
>Serbia's state media said President Slobodan Milosevic was ready to accede
>to most of the conditions for a peace deal drawn up by the G8 group of
>Western powers plus Russia. The Russian Balkan envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin
>had met the Yugoslav president on his weekend visit to Belgrade.
>Nato sources in Macedonia have privately admitted to growing confusion over
>preparations for a land offensive in Kosovo. Weeks after politicians began
>to prepare Western public opinion for a massive land invasion of Kosovo,
>Nato forces in Macedonia are as far as ever from being able to mount an
>assault, defence sources say. Announcements of massive reinforcements are
>misleading because all troops now being sent to the border countries will
>be needed to escort the refugees into the province in a "semi-permissive
>environment".
>Sources say an operation to take Kosovo by force would need thousands more
>troops and much more equipment. Military strategists say politicians have
>delayed authorising the extra forces needed for combat for so long that a
>campaign before the harsh Balkan winter sets is already almost impossible.
>The terrain in Kosovo would have to be secured by the end of August at the
>latest, if more than 800,000 refugees now in Albania and Macedonia are to
>begin returning home this year.
>To delay an invasion any later, they say, will hand a crucial strategic
>advantage to Mr Milosevic, because the return of bad weather will hinder
>air strikes, block land routes for the invading force and cover the
>thousands of mines the Serbs have laid with snow and ice. Senior officers
>from several Nato countries are exasperated at what they see as
>procrastination by politicians. They say they are receiving conflicting
>messages about the land war.
>The British government is largely absolved from their criticism, because it
>pressed hardest for the alliance to prepare for a ground war to take
>Kosovo. With what is seen as a lack of firm leadership over the war in many
>capitals, especially Washington, the military commanders are trying to
>circumnavigate the control of civil servants and politicians. When the
>Pentagon forbade Nato to use Apache helicopters because of their
>vulnerability to anti-aircraft fire, Nato's commander General Wesley Clark
>has started using older Spectre gunships for similar missions.
>The reinforcements being sent so far are engineers and support groups
>needed to re-establish the basic infrastructure inside Kosovo when the
>refugees return. A strike force requires specialist troops, massive heavy
>armour, and airborne forces.