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NATO puts more aircraft into Yugoslav campaign

Officials say the U.S. can fly more bombers like this B-52 from bases in Britain RELATED VIDEO CNN's Brent Sadler reports on Yugoslavia's claim that a warplane was shot down Saturday, March 27 Windows Media 28K 80K   To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery. Quicktime Movie: NATO releases video of airstrikes 1.6M / 21 sec. / 240x180  ALSO: NATO, British leaders allege 'genocide' in Kosovo Primakov to try to halt NATO bombings NATO stealth missions continue after crash Russia: NATO strikes hurting relations with U.S. Clinton: NATO must keep up air campaign Anti-NATO protests in Australia, Austria, Russia Report: Police detain suspects in embassy shooting  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo

March 28, 1999
Web posted at: 8:47 a.m. EST (1347 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- NATO is putting more planes into its attacks on Yugoslavia, British officials said Sunday.

The Royal Air Force will commit another 12 combat planes and a tanker to the allied action in the Balkans, and the U.S. Air Force has been given permission to fly more B-52 heavy bombers out of British air bases, British Defense Secretary George Robertson said.

Those planes will be part of NATO's attempt to stop attacks on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo, he said.

The British commitment includes eight Tornado fighter- bombers, four additional Harrier ground attack planes and a tanker, Robertson said. The combat planes will be ready to participate in NATO attacks by Monday.

The announcement came a day after NATO's supreme commander, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, was given permission to attack Yugoslav troops in the field south of Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. Robertson said the allies have new reports of attacks in Kosovo from refugees and international aid workers, and he said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic bore the responsibility for the violence.

"We are increasingly swinging our attention to the military thugs that are causing so much misery and suffering directly at Milosevic's orders," he said.

Robertson said areas of Kosovo along the Macedonian border were "in flames," thousands of refugees were streaming across the border into Albania, and some were being used as human shields.

NATO began the air strikes Wednesday after the Milosevic government refused to sign a pact ending a year of ethnic strife in Kosovo, a majority-Albanian province of Serbia. Representatives of the province's ethnic Albanian population have already signed the agreement.

'The pressure ... will not diminish'

NATO announced the second phase of its air campaign on Saturday -- a move that presents more danger to NATO pilots, who will be flying lower and more slowly in order to attack Yugoslav army positions south of Belgrade, according to NATO spokesman Jamie Shea.

The attacks will be carried out primarily in Kosovo and areas just to the north of the province, though attacks on air defenses and other military facilities will continue in other parts of Yugoslavia, Shea said.

Robertson and Gen. Sir Charles Guthrie, the British chief of staff, said the loss of a U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter shows that Yugoslav air defenses are still a threat. But Guthrie added, "The fact that this change is possible is a result of our attacks so far."

"The pressure and tempo (of NATO attacks) will not diminish. Indeed, they will increase," Guthrie said. "Their unacceptable actions in Kosovo come at a very high price."

More reports of attacks on civilians in Kosovo emerged Saturday and early Sunday. A village in Kosovo just north of Macedonia was on fire Saturday, and residents who fled across the border told CNN that police had ordered them to leave their homes within two hours or be killed.

Thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees left Kosovo and poured into neighboring Albania and Macedonia, telling of forced roundups and expulsions. Independent confirmation of those reports was difficult, because most international journalists and observers have been expelled from Kosovo by the Serbian government.

Robertson repeated the warnings against war crimes that Western officials have issued in recent days, and he urged Serb troops to second-guess their officers when given orders to attack civilians.

He called the Serb offensive "murderous" and said a veteran Serb commander in ethnic wars that wracked Bosnia and Croatia has been spotted in Kosovo.

"I don't use the term murderous lightly," Robertson said. "What we see happening, and what we hear from those who have managed to escape and from the reports of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and from the Red Cross are enough - - and more than enough -- to convince us that we are confronting a regime which is intent on genocide.

"These airstrikes have one purpose alone, and that is to stop the genocide."

Milosevic asks for 'all necessary assistance'

On state television Saturday, Milosevic lambasted the NATO attacks and called for international support.

"It is the duty of all free countries to stand up to the military despotism of NATO, led by the United States, which is destroying the United Nations system and represents the most serious threat to international peace and security since World War II," Milosevic said.

He had met with Ukrainian defense and foreign ministers, who came to Belgrade to try to mediate Yugoslavia's standoff with the West.

"As an attacked country, Yugoslavia should get all necessary assistance," added the defiant Yugoslav leader, alluding to traditional allies of Serbs, including Russia and Ukraine.

But President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro, one of the two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation, called on Milosevic Saturday to resume peace talks with the Kosovar Albanians.

After Djukanovic met with his Cabinet in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, the leadership issued a statement that "conflict with the world, which has kept Yugoslavia isolated, is no policy for the future of our people and our state."

Djukanovic has been a longtime critic of Milosevic, but he also called on NATO to end the air offensive. Although Montenegro declared neutrality in the dispute, military targets in Montenegro have been bombed.

Correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Brent Sadler, Chris Burns, Chris Black, Jeanne Meserve and Patricia Kelly contributed to this report.

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