BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA: NATO Challenged By New Air Attacks on Bihac

• by IPS Correspondents (zagreb)
• Friday, November 18, 1994
• Inter Press Service

ZAGREB, Nov 18 (IPS) - Bosnian Serb aircraft attacked the U.N. safe area of Bihac in north west Bosnia-Hercegovina on Friday, U.N. officials reported here.

A missile also struck the Bosnian parliament building in Sarajevo -- both bombardments in defiance of U.N. warnings that such attacks would be met with NATO air strikes.

The two Orao (Eagle) fighter-bombers struck from a height of 200 metres over Bihac. In Zagreb, the U.N. said they had evidence that napalm and cluster bombs had been used in the raid. No casualties were reported.

The Serb air attack on Bihac came only hours after the U.N. Security Council demanded a halt to the fighting and warned that NATO aircraft might be used to counter attacks on Bihac town or on the 1,300 Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers based nearby.

The attack on the Sarajevo presidency building, the second in as many days, particularly angered the U.N. which had called Thursday's attack "an outrageous and deliberate assault". A sniper also shot dead a seven-year-old boy and wounded his mother in Sarajevo.

In Bihac the Bosnian government faces its worst defeat in terms of lost territory since April when it nearly lost the eastern enclave of Gorazde, another U.N. 'safe area'. The fall of the city was only averted after NATO attacked Serb targets in the zone.

But despite new losses in Bihac Friday, the rejuvenated Bosnian army continues to make gains in other parts of the country. In Central Bosnia-Hercegovina, they have taken Kupres, closed on Donji Vakuf and captured high ground north and west of Sarajevo.

By some measures Sarajevo's Muslim army commanders would be better off if Bihac fell. A serious Bosnian Serb attack on the enclave would be met by NATO air attacks, and bring the United Nations into direct confrontation with the Bosnian Serbs.

Not only that, many of Bihac's residents backed a rebel Muslim revolt against the Sarajevo government in August. These rebels are now leading the attack on northern Bihac, backed by Serb artillery.

Tucked away in the remote north west, it is virtually impossible to resupply, and though home to much of Bosnia-Hercegovina's pre- war modern industry, in broad strategic terms the enclave is of limited value to the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo.

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