EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Monday, March 29, 1999-07:51CST

CRISIS NEWS BRIEFS

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - NATO planes bombed military targets in Yugoslavia overnight, hoping to force an end to what alliance members called "genocide" in Kosovo. France urged Russia to put pressure on its fellow Slavs to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough. Albania said some 60,000 refugees had flooded across its border since late Saturday.

SERBIA/RUSSIA (EmergencyNet News) - Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov may visit Belgrade on Tuesday to seek a way to end NATO air raids on its traditional Slav ally Yugoslavia. NATO member states, in particular France, have said Russia holds the key to persuading Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to agree to a political solution to the crisis over the majority ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo.

From the ERRI Watch Center

WASHINGTON/SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - With the fifth day of air strikes underway on Sunday, POTUS met with his national security team, and his advisers made the rounds on talk shows to affirm the need for stepping up the NATO assault to target Yugoslav military forces. The Pentagon said more U.S. warplanes, including four of the B-52 long-range bombers, were joining the nearly 200 planes already participating in Operation Allied Force. Six to 12 U.S. planes were being added, along with 12 more fighters and light bombers from Britain.

Neither the Pentagon nor NATO will yet say officially what caused the U.S. Air Force F-117A stealth fighter-bomber to crash Saturday 30 miles northwest of Belgrade. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are strong indications the F-117A was hit by a surface-to-air missile, possibly the Soviet-made SA-3 air defense missile. The Washington Post, citing Pentagon officials, reported today that it was indeed an SA-3 that struck the plane. U.S. officials say they are not  overly concerned that the Serbs might glean useful information from the wreckage.

Serbian radio reported the fiercest bombing over the Kosovo capital Pristina and the surrounding area since the start of the alliance's campaign.

Albania said on Monday aid organisations have underestimated the number of refugees crossing its border, saying some 60,000 refugees had flooded into the country since late on Saturday. Belgrade-based independent Radio B92 reported that three NATO missiles had hit the police headquarters in Pristina at around 0200 hours local time (midnight GMT). The radio station also said: "Immediately after the missile strike, rebels launched attacks against police positions in Pristina from the mainly Albanian-populated districts of Dragodan and Vranjevac."

It was not known how much damage the missile attacks caused. Serbian television showed pictures of a burning multi-story building it said was in Pristina. B92 radio reported that apartment buildings and a dental clinic were damaged when the police headquarters was hit.

The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug also reported some 20 NATO missiles shook the town of Gnjilane in eastern Kosovo on Sunday night and an army barracks in Djakovica in the west, which caused heavy damage but no casualties.

SERBIA/ALBANIA (EmergencyNet News) - The Albanian embassy in Belgrade was reported to have been attacked on Sunday by what Tirana said were Serb nationalists in the second incident of its kind in three days. The Albanian news agency ATA quoted the Albanian Foreign Ministery as saying "Serb vandal nationalist groups" forced their way inside the gate, broke windows and threw inflammable substances which caused damage to the building. The attack came two days after Tirana had protested to Belgrade over a similar incident.

SERBIA/CROATIA (EmergencyNet News) - Croatian television reported that stone-throwing youths tried to break into the Croatian embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Sunday but were dispersed by police. About 40 youths threw stones at the building in central Belgrade around midday, breaking all the window panes. They climbed over a security fence surrounding the building and started kicking the front door, but police intervened and dispersed them.

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