ERROR: Account closed.

James L Westrich II westrich at miser.umass.edu
Wed Jun 2 05:56:50 PDT 1999



>>[This story describes Times of London reporter Eve-Ann Prentice's injury as
>>unconfirmed; the Times has reported it on their website
>><http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/05/31/timkoskos02006.html?1143120>
>>.]


>>May 31 12:58 PM ET


>>NATO Hits Serbia Sanatorium, 10 Said Killed


>>By Slobodan Spanic
>>BELGRADE (Reuters) - At least 10 people died when NATO warplanes bombarded
>>a sanatorium in southeastern Serbia Monday, state media said.


>>Another person was killed when her house in a village just outside Belgrade
>>was flattened, bringing the reported civilian up its daylight raids on
>>Yugoslavia.
>>Two missiles hit an old people's home in the grounds of the sanatorium in
>>Surdulica and a pavilion where refugees were housed, state radio said.


>>In Ripanj, a village below Mount Avala south of Belgrade where a huge
>>transmitter has been crippled in previous strikes, Slavica Kostic lay dead,
>>surrounded by the rubble of her house.


>>Her small cat, blood dripping from its ears, crouched near her body,
>>refusing to move. Her son Ljuba was wounded in the attack, which destroyed
>>several surrounding houses.


>>In Zvezdara, a densely populated suburb in eastern Belgrade, Studio B
>>television quoted city authorities as saying three people were wounded in
>>an attack.
>>A woman standing outside her house spoke on the telephone, its cord
>>stretched through a hole where her window had been.


>>The latest devastation followed an attack on a bridge in Varvarin, southern
>>Serbia, Sunday afternoon that killed nine people and wounded at least 17.


>>In Surdulica, civil defense officials said they feared the death toll could
>>go higher as they searched through debris from the sanatorium attack, which
>>occurred just after midnight (2200 GMT), the radio reported.


>>It was the second time the sanatorium had been hit in the NATO air strikes
>>which began on March 24, the radio said.


>>Surdulica, about 75 km (50 miles) southeast of Nis and near the highway
>>linking Nis and the Macedonian capital Skopje, was the scene of one of
>>NATO's previous high-profile blunders.


>>On April 27, 20 people, mainly women and children, were killed during an
>>air strike on an army barracks in the town. NATO admitted that a
>>laser-guided bomb went astray and hit a residential area, destroying scores
>>of homes.


>>Sunday, NATO launched a daylight attack on a bridge over the Velika Morava
>>River in Varvarin, 150 km (90 miles) south of Belgrade. It was cut in half
>>by the explosions and pieces lay semi-submerged in the river.


>>``Two missiles hit first, people rushed to help those trapped. Four minutes
>>later, another two hit,'' said Slavoljub Blagojevic, manager of a nearby
>>sports center.


>>The official news agency Tanjug said cars plunged into the river and 15
>>boats full of rescue teams searched for victims.


>>CNN television quoted a NATO spokesman Sunday night as confirming a bridge
>>in the area had been bombed but saying that it was a legitimate military
>>target.
>>Serbian radio reported Nis was blacked out after NATO planes hit a power
>>station there just after 00:30 a.m. (2230 GMT).


>>NATO aircraft fired three missiles at the Elektro Istok plant and two
>>missiles at the area around the power station minutes later, the radio
>>said. Residents said they saw fires burning in the area.


>>Later in the night, the electricity plant at Obrenovac, outside Belgrade,
>>was hit, causing power failures in some parts of the capital, the
>>independent Beta news agency reported.


>>Belgrade residents reported hearing strong explosions from the southern and
>>eastern suburbs of the city, and heavy anti-aircraft fire. ``Everything is
>>shaking around us,'' one said.


>>Beta also said an oil refinery on the road between Belgrade and Pancevo was
>>hit, with strong blasts heard around the plant around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT).


>>NATO also destroyed a bridge in the center of the southern Serbian town of
>>Vladicin Han Sunday night, Tanjug reported.


>>In another daylight raid Sunday, NATO missiles fell near a group of foreign
>>journalists travelling in a convoy in southern Kosovo, Tanjug reported.


>>The strike killed a driver and wounded at least two people, French
>>philosopher and humanist Daniel Schiffer and Times of London journalist
>>Eve-Ann Prentice, Tanjug said. There was no immediate independent
>>confirmation of the incident.


>>Kosovo came under heavy attack Sunday evening, with 40 missiles hitting the
>>southern Serbian province in one five-hour period, Tanjug said. The
>>Pristina area and targets around Prizren, Djakovica and Urosevac were hit.


>>Caught in the earlier daytime barrage were Yugoslavia's second city of Novi
>>Sad in the north, the towns of Smederevo and Kursumlija in central Serbia,
>>Presevo and Vranje in the south, and at least six radio and television
>>transmission towers.



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