MILITARY NEWS

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Western embassies in the Serbian capital of Belgrade evacuated non-essential staff on Saturday as fighting worsened in Kosovo and punitive NATO bombings loomed after the failure of peace talks. Earlier in the day, a convoy of around 30 cars, carrying mostly women and children was seen leaving the German embassy compound and heading north toward Hungary.

Staff and family members of diplomats at the British, French, Canadian and Australian embassies also evacuated Belgrade on Saturday. The U.S. embassy was the first to evacuate non-core staff and dependants on Friday after Washington urged U.S. citizens to leave Yugoslavia and staff in Belgrade to evacuate to avoid possible reprisals from Serbs if NATO bombs eventually fall.

While Western diplomats were leaving Belgrade, some 1,400 international observers deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were withdrawing from Kosovo to make way for possible NATO air strikes. As the observers drove across the border into Macedonia, fighting worsened north and west of the provincial capital Pristina. Serbian police blocked the main road linking Pristina to Belgrade with armored vehicles after a police station was attacked by ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas. Civilians were also seen fleeing artillery attacks in central Kosovo.

KLA rebels also hit police positions in the north-central towns of Glogovac and Srbica with automatic weapons, anti-tank grenades and mortars Friday night and Saturday morning. The Glogovac-Srbica corridor was believed to have been in guerrilla hands as recently as Friday.

WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - The United States said on Thursday that U.S. and NATO forces are ready to strike Serb targets "very quickly" with cruise missiles and bombs but are unlikely to act on Kosovo until diplomats, Western observers and aid workers are removed from Yugoslavia. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters that Kosovo peace talks in Paris were "in their terminal stages" and that Yugoslavia military forces were attacking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in violation of earlier agreements.

MILITARY NEWS

WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, the Pentagon's top military commanders warned that there could be U.S. casualties if NATO launches airstrikes against Serb positions. The testimony by the military commanders came as peace negotiations in Paris seemed on the verge of collapse.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Michael Ryan said that Yugoslavia's air defenses are sophisticated and heavily defended. Ryan said: "There is a distinct possibility we will lose aircraft in trying to penetrate those defenses."

U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General Charles Krulak agreed. He said: "It is going to be tremendously dangerous." Serbian air defense systems "are mobile. The terrain is very tough. And the weather cannot be under-estimated." Krulak said there were some "bottom-line question" that still need to be answered: "What is the end game? How long will the strike go on? Will our allies stay with us?"

General Dennis Reimer, the U.S. Army chief of staff, told the Senate committee that the "current criteria for commitment" on the ground remains a still-elusive peacekeeping agreement. POTUS has said he's prepared to send up to 4,000 U.S. troops to Kosovo as part of a 28,000-member NATO peacekeeping force.

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WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - NATO's commander said on Wednesday that Serb forces are prepared to resume fighting in Kosovo on a "very large scale" if they don't reach a peace agreement with ethnic Albanians. U.S. Army General Wesley Clark told a congressional committee that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic should realize NATO is ready to strike Serb forces if he doesn't make peace or if he uses a new Serb troop buildup around Kosovo to launch fresh military actions in violation of a cease-fire.

Clark's warning came as peace talks continued in Paris between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, who have pledged to sign the agreement giving them self-rule in the Serb province instead of the independence they had sought. Milosevic has balked, refusing to accept NATO peacekeepers as part of the deal.

Clark told the House Armed Forces Committee: "There should be no doubt that the Serb forces, military and police, and some irregular paramilitary forces, are continuing the fighting at this time. And they are prepared to resume the conflict on a very large scale should these peace talks fail to result in an agreement or should they conclude that for some reason NATO wasn't serious in its expressed intent."

Clark didn't indicate how soon a NATO attack might come, but a Pentagon official told lawmakers it could be at any time. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Walter Slocombe said: "There is broad consensus that, if necessary -- and it may be necessary quite soon, that NATO is prepared to use military force."

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WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said on Tuesday that 16,000 to 21,000 Yugoslav army troops are now on the perimeter of the Serb province of Kosovo, up from about 10,000 reported two weeks ago and 4,500 in late February. An additional 14,000 to 18,000 Yugoslav army forces are deployed inside Kosovo.

Bacon said: "They certainly are bracing for war," even while continuing to participate in peace talks in Paris. NATO has about 12,000 troops in Macedonia, on Kosovo's southern border, but they are intended only for a peacekeeping mission in the event of a peace agreement in which both sides accept the use of NATO troops. Most of the NATO troops are from Britain and other European countries.

According to Bacon, Yugoslav army troops had moved seven T-72 battle tanks into Kosovo. He called this the "most disturbing" news provided by the team of international verifiers monitoring Kosovo under auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Bacon said U.S. and allied aircraft remain prepared to conduct airstrikes against Serb targets if NATO authorities issue the orders. He said about 400 allied aircraft are in the area, including about 250 American planes.

The number of U.S. planes declined when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise -- home to about 70 aircraft -- left the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to take up station in the Persian Gulf. There is no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean now, although one is due to arrive there next month. To fill the gap created by the Enterprise's departure, an unspecified number of U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle aircraft will be moved to Aviano air base in Italy from elsewhere in Europe.

In addition to an array of European naval vessels in the Mediterranean, there are several U.S. Navy ships, including the cruiser USS Philippine Sea, the destroyers USS Nicholson and USS Gonzalez, two attack submarines and USS Thorn, which is the flagship for NATO's naval force in Mediterranean, which is now in the Adriatic. All six of those ships are armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Also in the NATO force are a Greek destroyer and frigates from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Britain and Turkey.

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TERRORISM/POLITICAL VIOLENCE

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe's truce monitoring mission in Kosovo said six people were killed and 60 others were wounded when three bombs exploded in the Kosovo town of Podujevo on Saturday. One of the bombs went off in a market. The Kosovo Information Center said the first blast occurred at 1300 hours local time (1200 GMT) and a second ripped through the center of the town about ten minutes later. Podujevo is 30 miles north of Pristina.

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