ZAGREB, Croatia -- Four U.N. peacekeepers from Bangladesh were injured, at least one seriously, when their armored vehicle was struck yesterday by two anti-tank missiles believed to have been fired by Croatian Serbs in northwestern Bosnia, U.N. officials said.
The attack was the most serious to date on the besieged and ill-equipped Bangladeshi battalion, which has been a sitting target since it replaced French troops in the U.N.-declared "safe haven" of Bihac in October.
Three quarters of the 1,200 Bangladeshi troops have no guns, and the first food and fuel supplies in two months arrived last week. The United Nations wants to withdraw several hundred troops, but Serbs in the breakaway Krajina area of Croatia have blocked them from crossing their territory.
U.N. officials described the missiles as wire-guided rockets that rarely miss their target. Claire Grimes, a U.N. spokeswoman, said the fact that two missiles struck the same vehicle left no doubt that the attack was deliberate.
"Fire broke out as a result of the first impact, and when the soldiers came out of the vehicle, they drew sniper fire as well," Ms. Grimes said. "It is clear the vehicle was targeted."
Rescue efforts were hampered by the snipers, but a medical helicopter was dispatched late yesterday to the site of the attack, which occurred near the Muslim farm town of Velika Kladusa about 50 miles north of Bihac. The rockets were fired from Bosnian territory patrolled by Croatian Serbs, who have joined Bosnian Serbs in their assault on Bihac, the United Nations said.
The missile attack raised new concerns about the Serbian stranglehold on the U.N. mission there. The sophistication of the weaponry and the direct targeting of peacekeepers once again highlighted the vulnerability of the U.N. troops and the upper hand enjoyed by the Bosnian Serbs and their allies from the Krajina-occupied area of Croatia.
At least two mortar rounds struck the center of Bihac yesterday, injuring a teen-ager, and shelling over the weekend wounded at least five people, according to U.N. reports. Last week mortar attacks killed a woman and wounded seven other people in Bihac, the reports said.
"The attacks have been continuing over the past few weeks," Ms. Grimes said. "And the direct targeting of Bihac has been increasing."
Even with armed escorts, three food convoys bound for Bosnian government-held enclaves of eastern Bosnia have been held up by Bosnian Serbs since Saturday, while others have been robbed or hijacked. The United Nations said it would consider allowing convoys without escorts if drivers did not object.
The bad news in northern Bosnia came as Bosnian Serbs lifted a blockade on fuel convoys in Sarajevo to the southeast, allowing supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel into the encircled capital for the first time in three weeks.
The shortage had grown so severe that some U.N. troops reduced anti-sniping patrols over the weekend while others resorted to escorting civilians on foot.