March 25, 1999
Web posted at: 5:42 a.m. EST (1042 GMT)(CNN) -- Air raid sirens sounded
in Belgrade early Thursday, CNN has confirmed. NATO airstrikes against
Yugoslavia were suspended shortly before dawn following 10 hours of
attacks. The airstrikes were launched Wednesday evening against military
targets, after Serbs refused to sign a Kosovo peace plan.
Here are the latest developments:
- No official time frame for concluding the airstrikes has been
announced. However, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said the
operation could continue for "a few days."
- Russia will not use "extreme measures" to counter NATO attacks,
Russian officials said Thursday, CNN correspondent Steve Harrigan
reports. Russia has said it strongly disapproves of NATO airstrikes
on Yugoslavia. Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov scuttled
a trip to Washington on Tuesday after learning that NATO would attack
Yugoslavia.
- Gen. Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, will hold
a military briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday
morning. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana may also be involved
with the briefing.
- "We are ready to fight against the aggressors," Goran Matic,
Yugoslav Federal Minister said Thursday. He said that "the people
of Yugoslavia are united in defending their country," though they
seek a peaceful solution to the Kosovo crisis. Matic said at least
10 people died and more than 60 civilians were wounded in airstrikes
by NATO. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.
- Reports of civilian casualties from NATO airstrikes do not seem
"particularly credible" said British Defense Secretary George Robertson.
Such accounts are hard to verify, Robertson said, particularly in
a country which has shut down press freedoms. While he is concerned
about possible casualties, he said the NATO operation is necessary
because the international community "will not stand by and watch
the blood flowing" in Kosovo.
- A senior defense official told CNN that NATO military strikes
on Yugoslavia have been suspended for now and "all (NATO) planes
are safe" and returning to their bases. Data gathering for bomb
damage assessments is taking place Thursday, and strikes are expected
to continue, said the official, who asked not to be named.
- Correspondent Chris Burns reported that NATO tanks were patrolling
the Yugoslav border in Macedonia early Thursday. Some military leaders
were concerned that the Yugoslavs might retaliate by firing on the
NATO troops.
- More than 20,000 refugees have fled to Macedonia, and officials
are attempting to develop a plan for housing and feeding them while
the crisis in Kosovo continues.
- Electricity was back on early Thursday in Pristina, Kosovo's
capital, as a tense quiet prevailed after airstrikes were suspended.
Many residents were stocking up on bread and candles, said Daloni
Carlisle of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Carlisle
said Kosovars were "trying to keep their heads down" as they watched
for a resumption of airstrikes. "I think everybody in Pristina is
just very scared," Carlisle said. "Their first need is not food
or medicine -- it's security."
- Yugoslavia claims there were civilian casualties in Belgrade
and elsewhere in Serbia after the first wave of NATO airstrikes.
The Yugoslav army said an unspecified number of women and children
had been killed in military housing and that seven towns had been
hit in a barrage of cruise missiles.
- Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia would urge the United
Nations to lift the arms embargo resolution on Yugoslavia. He characterized
NATO action against Yugoslavia as "aggression against a country
which needs help and support to retaliate."
- The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has beefed up its security, after
Serbian demonstrators protested the NATO attack. Russian ultra-nationalist
leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said at a rally that some Russians are
ready to fight for their "Slavic brothers" in Yugoslavia.
- U.S. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole, Republican and former
Red Cross chief, expressed support for the military action in Yugoslavia,
saying it was needed to curb Serb offensives against Kosovar Albanians.
"The atrocities carried out by Serbian nationalists must be halted,"
she said.
- Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley, the former New
Jersey senator, also expressed support for the military action and
for American and NATO troops. But he said he has "serious questions
about our policy. We are escalating our commitment without establishing
a clear exit strategy."
- In an address to the American people Wednesday night, U.S. President
Bill Clinton said the attacks are necessary to "defuse a powder
keg at the heart of Europe" and said the world had a "moral imperative"
to stop a Yugoslav crackdown on Kosovar Albanians.
- "In the Balkans, inaction in the face of brutality simply invites
more brutality. But firmness can stop armies and save lives," he
said. However, Clinton specifically ruled out the introduction of
U.S. ground forces in a combat capacity. "I don't intend to put
our troops in Kosovo to fight a war," he said.
- Correspondent Bettina Lüscher in Berlin reported that Operation
Allied Force represented the first time since World War II that
German troops and aircraft were sent to another country. German
leaders regard it as an important step, Luscher said.
- Correspondent Martin Savidge, aboard the USS Philippine Sea
in the Adriatic Sea, reported that at about 2 a.m. Thursday morning
(8 p.m. Wednesday EST), three more Tomahawk cruise missiles were
launched from the ship and a fourth was launched from the nearby
USS Gonzales. The launches ended a lull of several hours in military
action on the ships, which earlier had sent up a dozen missiles.
- In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," the Yugoslav charge
d'affaires in Washington, Nebojsa Vujovic, said the airstrikes caused
"many casualties" in Yugoslavia. Serbian television showed footage
of what it said were wounded civilians in a hospital.
- Pentagon officials said NATO aircraft did not come under fire
from Yugoslav anti-aircraft missiles but were challenged by Russian-made
MiG fighters. U.S. officials say they have "high confidence" that
at least two MiGs were shot down. Both NATO and the Pentagon denied
a Belgrade Radio report that a NATO plane had been shot down in
northern Kosovo.
- Though U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton
declined to say publicly how long the campaign might last, senior
Pentagon and NATO officials tell CNN that the attacks could be sustained
over two to three weeks unless the Yugoslavs reverse course and
agree to the Kosovo peace deal.
- Several journalists from Western news organizations, including
four from CNN, were taken from a hotel by Serb police and detained
for several hours. Most were eventually released.
- U.S. military officials say the opening salvo of the NATO airstrikes
consisted of about 100 satellite-guided cruise missiles launched
from U.S. and British naval vessels and by U.S. B-52 bombers flying
out of bases in Britain.
- That initial wave was followed with attacks by manned aircraft,
including fighters, bombers and tankers. Included were radar-resistant
U.S. B-2 stealth bombers making their combat debut. Aircraft from
11 NATO nations took part.
- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said late Wednesday afternoon
that targets included Yugoslavia's air defenses, its command and
control capability and its military forces stationed inside Kosovo.
He would not discuss specific targets and declined to characterize
the extent of Yugoslav resistance.
- Shelton said it was too early to give a battle-damage assessment.
NATO officials were to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday
(8 a.m. EST) at which more details of the attack results are expected.
- NATO has dubbed its mission Operation Allied Force. The U.S.
military is calling its segment of the mission Operation Noble Anvil.
- At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Russian
Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said Russia "immediately demands the immediate
cessation of this illegal military action." Earlier, President Boris
Yeltsin called the NATO attacks "outright aggression" and said his
country would take "adequate measures, including military ones,
to ensure Russia's safety."
- Vujovic called the airstrikes a "total breach of international
order" and a "crime against humanity." He said his government would
"never recognize" an independent Kosovo.
- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told state television
in Beijing on Thursday morning that the Kosovo issue is an "internal
affair of Yugoslavia" and called for an immediate halt to NATO attacks.
- Correspondent Brent Sadler reported the first explosions in
Pristina, the capital of the Serbian province of Kosovo, just before
8 p.m. Wednesday (2 p.m. EST/1900 GMT). Explosions on the outskirts
of the city rattled windows and threw up huge orange fireballs visible
in Pristina, which was virtually in darkness.
- Correspondent Christiane Amanpour in Belgrade reported hearing
several explosions and seeing two flashes in the night skies on
the distant horizon. A witness told CNN that a military airport
about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) outside Belgrade had been hit. The
Yugoslav military command said 20 targets were hit.
- Serbian television showed footage of damaged buildings on fire
in the city of Novi Sad. Between newscasts, state TV ran World War
II movies in which Serbs took on the Nazis. The state news agency
Tanjug reported that relatives of soldiers had been killed in an
attack on a military barracks.
- Correspondent Jim Bittermann at NATO's Aviano Air Base in Italy
said military aircraft began taking off about 6 p.m. (noon EST/1700
GMT). Overall, about 70 of the base's 130 planes were deployed.
By about 10:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. EST/2115 GMT), planes had begun returning.
- Correspondent Matthew Chance in Skopje, Macedonia, reported
that NATO tanks were patrolling the border between Kosovo and Macedonia.
About 10,000 NATO forces stationed in Macedonia were on alert.
- In protest against the attacks, Russia recalled its ambassador
to NATO, closed its offices at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium,
and announced that it would pull out of NATO's Partnership for Peace
process and remove 80 military observers from Macedonia.
- U.S. President Bill Clinton said the NATO mission has three
goals: to show NATO's serious commitment to peace in Kosovo, to
deter further attacks by Yugoslav government troops, and, if necessary,
to degrade the capacity of the Yugoslav armed forces.
- In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, "There
are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit
of peace." But he said the Security Council should be involved in
the decision to use force. At Russia's request, the council held
a closed-door meeting late Wednesday afternoon.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "We are taking this
action for one very simple reason -- to damage Serb forces sufficiently
to prevent Milosevic from continuing to perpetuate his vile oppression
against innocent Albanian civilians."
- NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said, "Our actions are
directed against the repressive policy of Yugoslav leadership."
He said NATO was not at war with the Yugoslav people.
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose military forces are
participating in a combat campaign in Europe for the first time
since World War II, appealed to Germans "to stand by our soldiers
in this hour."
CNN - Operation Allied Force: Day One - March 25, 1999
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/24/nato.attack.bullet/
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