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A B-52 on final approach for Barksdale AFB in Louisiana  ALSO: U.S. Marines come under fire in Kosovo; gunman killed European foreign ministers pledge unity in Kosovo Clinton leaves Balkans hailed a hero by Kosovar Albanians  MESSAGE BOARD: Rebuilding Kosovo RELATED VIDEO After four months overseas, B-52 crews are returning home. CNN's Brian Cabell goes to Louisiana to see their welcome. (June 24) Windows Media 28K 80K KFOR troops are helping return life to normal in Kosovo towns, acting both as policemen and peacekeepers. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has the story. (June 23) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

June 23, 1999
Web posted at: 3:29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT)

In this story: Aircraft carriers reassigned 'Russians participated' KLA claims Russians killed in Kosovo RELATED STORIES, SITES

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, Louisiana (CNN) -- No longer needed, some of the U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels involved in NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia are being reassigned. In some cases, that means coming home.

A total of 11 Air Force B-52 bombers left Wednesday from an air base in Fairford, England, where they had been stationed for up to five months:

• 8 were returning to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
  
  
• 3 were returning to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

In all, nearly 400 U.S. warplanes will return to normal duty in coming weeks, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The United States used more than 700 warplanes, some of them already in Europe, in the 78-day conflict.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, whose F/A-18 and F-14 warplanes participated in the airstrikes, will leave the Mediterranean and take up its post in the Persian Gulf in July, Navy officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group, now in the Gulf, will then leave and return to its home station in Yokosuka, Japan, in early September -- filling a carrier gap in the western Pacific that has existed since early April.

In the meantime, the USS Constellation has left the West Coast and will eventually replace the Roosevelt in the Gulf in September.

News Highlights: Gallery: The conflict in review News story archive Yugoslavia's Future: What's next for Yugoslavia Map: Who controls what The Peace Settlement: A guide to the peace plan Map: Serb troop withdrawal The Military Campaign: Strike damage assessment Atlas: NATO and the Balkans Background: Timeline: Trouble in the Balkans A who's who of key players Map: Kosovo and its neighbors A history of the KLA

In a separate announcement, the Pentagon said Russian mercenaries fought in Kosovo alongside Serb forces, and their role is likely to be examined as part of an international investigation of war crimes against ethnic Albanians.

"We certainly know that Russians participated. Russian volunteers, mercenaries, we believe, did participate with paramilitary and other Serb forces," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday.

He had been asked to comment on a report in Newsday, a New York newspaper, that dozens of Russian volunteers took part in the killing of hundreds of ethnic Albanians and the destruction of towns and villages around Prizren in southern Kosovo.

"I do not have verification that there were units or groups of the size that Newsday reports," Bacon said. "But we do believe that there was some Russian participation."

The matter of Russia's role in Kosovo is sensitive. NATO has arranged for 3,600 Russian troops to join KFOR, the Kosovo Force of peacekeepers, including in the southern sector commanded by German forces.

Russians have cultural ties to the Serbs, and Moscow strongly opposed NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.

"When the Russian forces arrive as part of KFOR, we expect them to be totally fair and professional in their dealings with both Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, as they have been in Bosnia and where they have been very stalwart and successful members of the peacekeeping force," Bacon said. "I anticipate that the Russian troops coming to Kosovo will be exactly the same."

Bacon said the Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla band that fought against the Serb forces in pursuit of independence for the Serb province, had told NATO authorities during the NATO bombing campaign that Russians were involved, and that a number of Russians had been killed.

He said it was unclear whether the deaths were caused by NATO bombing or combat with the KLA rebels.

The Newsday report, citing ethnic Albanian and Serb security sources, mentioned several examples of Russian involvement in atrocities against ethnic Albanians. It said a group of about 60 Russians was ordered out of Kosovo just last week by German soldiers.

The Russian volunteers were military men who were either retired or not in active service, the newspaper reported, and their commander was an army colonel.

Newsday reported that the Russians were organized as a single unit and operated under the aegis of the Special Purpose Police of the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Belgrade. Bacon said the Pentagon had no independent confirmation of this or other details of the Russian involvement in Kosovo.

"Our impression is that they were mercenaries, but this is something that I'm sure will be looked into by war crimes investigators, who are now going into Kosovo in considerable numbers to try to figure out what happened and who was responsible for it," Bacon said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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