WASHINGTON -- NATO aircraft and ships launched a second blistering wave of bombs and missiles against Yugoslavia last night, mainly targeting the country's air defense systems in preparation for an expected attack on Serbian troops and armor that are cutting a bloody swath through Kosovo.
Two dozen sea-launched cruise missiles were poised to be fired in the all-night raid, which again included the B-2 stealth bomber, which debuted Wednesday, along with dozens of allied and U.S. aircraft armed with precision-guided bombs.
"We aim to put his military and security forces at risk," said U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, NATO's supreme commander, referring to President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. "We are going to systematically and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate."
Clark said more than 40 targets were struck in the initial 10-hour attack, which began Wednesday night and lasted until dawn yesterday. More than 150 aircraft sorties were flown and 50 cruise missiles were fired by allied ships and B-52 bombers. The B-52s, which launched more than two dozen cruise missiles Wednesday, did not take part in last night's raid.
The firepower in last night's attack came mostly from NATO warplanes that took off from bases in Italy and from four warships in the Adriatic Sea that launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.
More than half the targets were elements of the air defense system, including radar units, headquarters buildings and surface-to-air missile sites, said U.S. officials, who offered few details.
"We are satisfied that our mission is being carried out as we planned," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday on NBC's "Today" show. "It's going to be serious and sustained, and so this is only the first of it as such."
Serbia, meanwhile, ordered reporters from NATO countries to leave. Most journalists heeded the warning -- and several were threatened by angry Serbs on their way out. Yugoslavia also announced that it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States, Britain, France and Germany for participating in the airstrikes.
Last night's attack again centered on Serbia's air defense system, which includes hundreds of missiles and anti-aircraft artillery.
All allied pilots returned safely, officials said, and there were no reports of attacks by surface-to-air missiles or by Yugoslav aircraft.
Unlike Wednesday, when allied forces reportedly shot down three Serbian MiGs, the Serbs sent up no planes last night to challenge the allied pilots, officials say.
Avoiding detection
NATO and defense officials said Yugoslav forces, in an effort to avoid detection, dispersed many of their surface-to-air missile batteries and did not "illuminate" allied planes with radar.
"If they don't illuminate, it's hard to know where they are," said one defense official.
"They have been moving their air defenses," said Kenneth Bacon, the Pentagon spokesman. "That's one of the reasons why suppressing air defenses is not an easy job."
A NATO diplomat reported yesterday that several allied warplanes returned from the first night's raids without having dropped their bombs. Because Serbian air defenses did not "lock on" to NATO planes, the pilots could not find their targets, the diplomat said.
Yugoslav targets
Last night's targets included an army barracks at Urosevac in southern Kosovo, a base for the Yugoslav military campaign against ethnic Albanians. A Serbian military warehouse and army bases in Montenegro, Serbia's fellow republic in the Yugoslav Federation, reportedly were attacked.
The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported that a military barracks and the airport at Nis, Serbia's second-largest city, was bombed, local authorities said.
Other targets included a Serbian radio and television transmitter at Mount Jastrebac and a military communications center at Mount Bukulja.
The initial airstrikes Wednesday reportedly killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and damaged the Yugoslav military infrastructure.
"There was not a lot of air defense fire," Clark said. "We know [Milosevic] has some formidable capabilities. We just didn't see them [Wednesday night]."
While the majority of targets have been air defense systems, about 20 percent of the targets on the first night's raids were facilities and support centers for the Yugoslav army and special police, Bacon said. Those forces have been mounting attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Should the allied attacks continue, Bacon said, they would "focus more and more on achieving our primary goal, which is to reduce the ability of the Yugoslav forces to target or repress the Kosovar Albanians."
That would be achieved, officials say, by targeting barracks, troop concentrations, supply depots, tanks and other armor.
Fighting in Kosovo
Pentagon and NATO officials said the estimated 40,000 Serbian troops are intensifying their fight against rebels and civilians in Kosovo. There were reports of increased fighting in the northern and western portions of Kosovo, while Serb forces elsewhere are dispersing and pulling back into a defensive posture.
Serbs and ethnic Albanians accused each other of instigating the attacks. Separatist rebels attacked government forces in northern and central Kosovo, killing two Serbian policemen in Lubozda, the Yugoslav government news agency said.
Meanwhile, an ethnic Albanian rebel commander said Serbian police and Yugoslav soldiers were rounding up civilians and burning houses in the province.
More than 2,000 people have been killed and at least 400,000 forced to flee their homes in a year of fighting between Yugoslav troops and the separatist ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo, a province in Serbia.
The ethnic Albanians have signed the U.S.-backed peace plan, but Milosevic has refused.
Concerns on Macedonia
One Pentagon official said Serbian troops have bolstered their defenses along the Macedonian border, a concern for Clinton administration officials. There are 350 U.S. troops in Macedonia, among more than 10,000 NATO troops.
"We don't anticipate that there will be engagement by the Serbs across the Macedonian border, and if there were, it would be a serious mistake by the Serbs," Bacon said.
Concern that Yugoslavia would mount a naval threat led Clark to warn the country's defense chief that his navy must remain in port or "be treated as hostile forces."
The Yugoslav navy has seven submarines, four frigates and 16 fast-attack craft, all of which remained in port. Some of the ships were dispersed to three 230-foot-long tunnels at Kotor Bay, said one defense official.
Sun staff writer Jonathan Weisman and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
Damage assessments
NATO
More than 40 targets were struck in the first round of attacks Wednesday, including command-and-control facilities, air defenses, power grids, arms factories, command bunkers and barracks, according to NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark.
Allied aircraft "destroyed" three Yugoslav jet fighters -- two shot down by U.S. F-16s and the other by a Dutch F-16, Clark said.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said military briefers told him NATO planes downed four MiG-29s and destroyed two more on the ground.
At least one factory that makes parts for air defense systems was targeted, as well as a power plant near Belgrade and the Batajnica military airport, the main air base 10 miles west of the Serbian capital. Four missiles struck an aircraft plant at Pancevo, six miles north of Belgrade, destroying several small planes.
YUGOSLAVIA
About 50 targets were struck, the military said.
Ten civilians and one soldier were killed, and 60 people were wounded, according to Serbian Health Minister Dr. Leposava Milecevic. Lt. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, commander of Yugoslav troops in Kosovo, described the impact of the first NATO attack on military and other targets as "minimal."
Pub Date: 3/26/99