WASHINGTON -- NATO officials now believe that allied aircraft in Kosovo inadvertently attacked two convoys containing civilians -- not just one, as officials had asserted last week -- a U.S. Air Force general acknowledged yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Leaf, commander of the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing at Aviano Air Base in Italy, told reporters in Brussels, Belgium, that NATO officials think civilian vehicles made up part of two convoys outside Djakovica on April 14. Precise details of the airstrikes in western Kosovo may never be known.
Last week, amid conflicting reports, NATO and Pentagon officials apologized and said an "error" had been made by a NATO aircraft attacking a single convoy. However, Yugoslav officials contended that there had been two attacks by NATO aircraft that killed 75 civilians, and Serbian television showed graphic pictures of mangled civilians.
NATO, meanwhile, is trying to find a way to halt oil tanker deliveries to Yugoslav ports that are being used to fuel the war machine of President Slobodan Milosevic. Allied aircraft have destroyed most oil refineries and fuel depots in Yugoslavia.
The United States wants to block the deliveries by having NATO warships stop and search vessels in the Adriatic Sea. But France has opposed any blockade, saying it would amount to an act of war.
Rather than terming the proposed interdiction a blockade, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin spoke of it as "some kind of visit and search of ships."
Joe Lockhart, President Clinton's spokesman, said: "We think it's important that, working through the alliance, that we choke off any efforts of oil being brought in from the outside."
In another development, Yugoslavia closed its borders with neighboring Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro yesterday, turning what had been a daily flood of refugees over the weekend into a trickle, according to aid agencies.
There was no immediate explanation for the sudden change by Belgrade, which apparently has been using the flow of refugees as a weapon to keep NATO off guard and destabilize the region.
"It's very clear that there are large numbers of more people who would like to come," Paula Ghedini, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Macedonia.
A general explains
Leaf, the Air Force general, brushed aside suggestions that mistakes had been made by NATO aircraft. He said that both convoys that were attacked appeared to include military vehicles.
"I don't think my conclusions said that something clearly went wrong," Leaf said. "I said that there is a possibility that civilian-type vehicles were struck and that there may have been civilian personnel harmed.
"Given the Serb control of the scene, the video that they presented, we can't determine that clearly," he said. "We can only speculate on their association with our attacks."
Asked how a similar tragedy could be prevented, Leaf said he would not discuss details of NATO air missions, but added: "We review every tape, and we look for the best way to hit the right target at the right time in the right manner with minimal opportunity for unintended consequences."
Showing dramatic footage from the F-16 airstrikes, Leaf said the first attack against what appeared to be three military vehicles took place northwest of Djakovica, while a second, larger convoy of 100 vehicles was bombed to the southeast, on the road to Prizren. NATO jets dropped nine 500-pound, laser-guided bombs in the attacks.
"It is possible there were civilian casualties at both locations," the general said.
The strike on the second convoy was halted only after a lower-flying observation aircraft was called in to investigate further. Using binoculars, the pilot in the observation plane determined that civilian vehicles were part of the convoy, and the attack was stopped.
Part of the confusion appeared to stem from the altitude from which the aircraft attacked their targets. Earlier, NATO officials said the planes had been flying at about 15,000 feet. Leaf declined yesterday to discuss that, other than to say that none of the planes descended to low altitudes during the attacks.
NATO aircraft are trying to fly high enough to avoid anti-aircraft artillery fire, which has a "burst height" of about 13,000 feet, the general said.
"From the attack altitude, to the naked eye, they appeared to be military vehicles," Leaf said, adding that intelligence from an accompanying EC-130 aircraft aided in the target selection.
As the fighters completed their attacks on the second convoy, officers aboard the EC-130 received information from a NATO operations center in Vicenza, Italy. Intelligence specialists in the operations center, Leaf said, told the EC-130 that Serbian military forces do not travel in convoys that large.
The EC-130 suggested "reverification" of the convoy. An A-10 flew in low to investigate, using binoculars. The pilot spotted military vehicles but said "multicolored and possibly civilian vehicles were also present." All attacks were halted, and the fighters were ordered out of the area.
Further questions
If there was information that Serbian forces do not travel in large convoys, why wasn't it passed on before the attack? Leaf was asked. The general replied that the large convoy was a "new occurrence" that had not been seen before by NATO pilots.
"As soon as there was any doubt, they stopped attacking," he said.
Questioned further about reports that British pilots in the area had reported seeing refugees traveling within convoys, Leaf said: "There have been reports of British Harrier pilots seeing a convoy and identifying it as having refugees. This occurred at approximately the same time, but they were not in communication with the aircraft in question."
After "exhaustive" reviews of mission tapes, intelligence data, news reports and interviews with pilots, many questions remain, Leaf said.
"This is a very complicated scenario, and we will never be able to determine all of the exact details," he said.
Leaf said some of the civilians reportedly died from machine-gun and mortar wounds, though NATO aircraft used only precision bombs in their attack.
Meanwhile, President Clinton spoke for 45 minutes by phone yesterday with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, who urged him to halt NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Yeltsin said Russia would not take the provocative step of sending warships into the Adriatic, and reiterated that his country had no intention of involving itself militarily in the conflict.
Serbs pressing KLA
Despite another night of bombing and repeated assertions that Yugoslav forces are being slowed and degraded, NATO's spokesman, Jamie P. Shea, said there was a "large degree of fighting across Kosovo."
Serbian forces say they are trying to dislodge the Kosovo Liberation Army and disrupt its lines of communication, striking at footholds near Albania. Up to 80,000 ethnic Albanians are caught up in the troop movements, Shea said. Serbian forces are increasing the use of planes and helicopters in their operations.
"The [KLA] seems not to hold terrain any longer," said Brig. Gen. Giuseppe Marani, a NATO military spokesman. "Its seven principal headquarters have been dismantled by the offensive of the Yugoslav army in recent weeks."
Meanwhile, U.S. and British officials have speeded collection of evidence of atrocities in Kosovo for Louise Arbour, the prosecutor for the special War Crimes Tribunal created by the United Nations.
Officials say they won't shrink from relaying evidence that implicates Milosevic, though intelligence agencies are reluctant to divulge material that could compromise secret methods of intelligence gathering.
A senior Clinton administration official said there was a "high level of concern -- there has been for some time" -- for the pro-Western government of Montenegro, which is formally part of the Yugoslav federation but under threat from Belgrade.
Montenegro's deputy prime minister reportedly was named yesterday in an arrest warrant, but it apparently was not executed.
Pub Date: 4/20/99