03/24/99 - 13:00CST

by C. L. Staten

Pristina/Kosovo (EmergencyNet News) Eyewitnesses on the ground in Serbia say that they have heard "unexplained explosions" near Pristina. Although no official announcement has been released by NATO or the United States, press speculation is now centering on the possibility that an anticipated NATO air campaign against Serbian forces has begun.

EmergencyNet News is monitoring events in Kosovo and will provide additional details as they become available.

Breaking News:

EmergencyNet News *FLASH* Report

03/24/99 - 13:30CST

By C. L. Staten

Pristina/Kosovo (EmergencyNet News) President Bill Clinton has issued an announcement that NATO forces have begun an long anticipated air campaign against Serbian forces. Explosions have been heard and seen at a number of locations within Serbia, but press reports are sporadic and fragmentary due to the fact that most of the international press connections to the outside world have been severed, or are being restricted by Yugoslavia military and police services.

EmergencyNet News is monitoring events in Kosovo and will provide additional details as they become available.

EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Wednesday, March 24, 1999-17:16CST

*** CRISIS NEWS BRIEFS ***

GREECE (EmergencyNet News) - Military forces in the nations surrounding Yugoslavia are on alert, preparing for fallout from NATO airstrikes. The most immediate worry appeared to be the possibility of refugees fleeing Serbia and the war-torn province of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians have fought Serb-led Yugoslav forces for more than a year. But some leaders said a battle in Yugoslavia "could engulf the whole Balkans." Shelters and camps were set up in northern Albania to handle more refugees and hospitals were stocked with extra supplies.

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - The Kosovo capital Pristina was plunged into darkness on Wednesday evening after huge explosions were heard and NATO announced its air strikes against Yugoslavia had begun. It was not clear whether the blackout had been ordered by authorities or  was the result of damage to power supplies.

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Yugoslav authorities are cracking down on Western television broadcasts as an allied attack began. A TV transmission facility at a Belgrade hotel was shut down by government officials who removed equipment while ordering personnel to stand against a wall,. CNN's Christiane Amanpour noted that she would be subject to censorship. Some reporters were leaving Kosovo as the situation deteriorated there. CNN's Brent Sadler reported being threatened by officials when he and some colleagues transmitted a report today from the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - U.S. defense officials said U.S. warships and B-52 bombers fired cruise missiles against Serb air defense targets on Wednesday at the start of a sustained NATO missile and bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. They said targets included missile batteries, radars and military communications sites in and outside of Kosovo province.

From the ERRI Watch Center

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - NATO bombings are under way in Kosovo tonight to punish Yugoslavia and its hard-line leader for refusing to make peace in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

There were unconfirmed reports that either one NATO plane or a Serbian MiG-29 had been shot down. U.S. officials at a press conference that was held at the Pentagon could not confirm the reports. The Pentagon did say that Serbian fighters were challenging NATO planes.

Explosions went off in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. Residents reached by telephone said at least eight huge detonations were heard -- one quite loud -- and air raid sirens sounded. Air raid sirens also were heard in the Yugoslav capital, and some explosions were said to had been heard on the outskirts of the city.

U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers took off from their base in Britain more than seven hours before the blasts were heard at about 1400 EST, (2000 hours Serbian time.) after NATO gave the go-ahead for allied airstrikes on Yugoslavia. Waves of jet fighters also headed across the Adriatic Sea from the Aviano air base in northern Italy. Some reports said a very large number of warplanes took part in the initial attack.

The attack, announced by NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and confirmed minutes later by POTUS in Washington, was the first against a sovereign country in NATO's 50-year history.

Hours before the attack, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic delivered a final message of defiance, urging Yugoslavs in a nationally televised address to defend the country "by all means." He said: "What is at stake here is the freedom of the entire country."

Fighting raged in several Kosovo villages on Wednesday. Serb tanks fired volley after volley into areas near Kosovo's southern border with Macedonia. One report said about 100 houses ablaze in three devastated villages close to the border.

Senior military advisers have reportedly told POTUS that the air strikes in Kosovo will inflict heavy damage on Serb armored forces but that a defiant Milosevic is likely to retain control of the embattled province when the NATO campaign ends. According to senior defense officials, both Defense Secretary William Cohen and U.S. Army General Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been blunt in their assessments of the outcome of the air campaign in meetings with the President.

One member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: "It is a very frustrating scenario for the military. You can't control a territory with airplanes." One senior soldier who served in Vietnam and Desert Storm foresaw a smoke-covered Kosovo battlefield littered with dead Serb soldiers and burning tanks, the aftermath of air strikes by the most potent military alliance in history. But, he said, "Don't be fooled by what you see on TV. When this is over, Milosevic will still be in control of Kosovo."

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - The Serb military machine is regarded by defense sources as the best of any in the Balkans region. According to the British Ministry of Defense, the army -- known as the VJ -- alone has 85,000 regular soldiers and up to 200,000 reservists. These forces are supplemented by the Ministry of Interior Police -- the MUP -- numbering about 16,500.

The police have two sub-organizations - the specialist anti-terrorist police, the SAJ, and the combat police, the PJP, who are seen as responsible for the worst of the ethnic cleansing.

The army has an estimated 1,000 tanks - mostly the T-55 Russian tank designed in the 1940s but still reliable along with about 300 of the more modern M-84s - an updated copy of the Russian T-72. They are also equipped with M-80 armored fighting vehicles, the Praga armored truck which has a mounted 30 millimeter cannon, and the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (the Spaag) which has been used with great effect against houses and infantry.

In the air force, there are an estimated 16 MiG 29s, a modern Russian fighter and around 60 MiG 21s, designed in the 1960s but still considered a reliable and capable warplane.

The Serbians also have hundreds of surface-to-air missiles - referred to as SAMs - which are fixed, mobile and shoulder-launched as well as an estimated 2,000 anti-aircraft cannons. It was a SAM-6 which shot down a United States Air Force F-16 over Bosnia in 1995 and is seen as a very effective medium-level missile. the commander-in-chief is President Milosevic who is chairman of the Supreme Defense Council with day-to-day command in the hands of the Chief of the General Staff, General Ojdanic.

However, despite the numbers in the Serbian military, intelligence sources in London have suggested many are growing increasingly disaffected with Milosevic. There have been reports of some units refusing to go to Kosovo and only 8 percent of conscripts reporting for duty in some areas.

Some of the senior officers are also reported to be worried about being tried as war criminals if the offensive in Kosovo continues. A British intelligence source said: "Support for him is not as wide-spread as many people believe."

WASHINGTON (EmergencyNet News) - On 23 March the U.S. State Department issued an updated Travel Warning for Serbia. The following is the full text of that warning:

"The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against travel to Serbia-Montenegro and strongly urges U.S. citizens in Serbia-Montenegro to depart the country without delay due to the increased potential for military intervention by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On March 23, the Department of State suspended operations at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and ordered all remaining Embassy personnel to leave the country immediately. U.S. Government interests in Serbia-Montenegro will be represented by the government of Sweden, which, as a protecting power, can provide only limited emergency services to U.S. citizens.

Given recent history in the region, the possibility exists that U.S.citizens could be singled out in sporadic acts of violence, even though the government of Serbia-Montenegro has offered assurances no retaliatory actions would be taken against U.S. citizens."

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