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World - Europe

NATO drawing up plans to cut off Yugoslav oil imports

air attack
NATO destroyed an undergound oil storage facility near Sombor, Yugoslavia  
related videoRELATED VIDEO:
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InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
Images of NATO bomb attack on Serbian TV headquarters

The Kosovo refugees

The Serbs and Kosovo
 ALSO:
NATO reaffirms power to take action without U.N. approval

 MESSAGE BOARD:
Crisis in Kosovo
 MAPS:
NATO officials describe the air campaign
 IN-DEPTH SPECIAL:
NATO at 50
Strike on Yugoslavia
 

Despite bad weather, NATO keeps up attacks

April 24, 1999
Web posted at: 2:35 p.m. EDT (1835 GMT)


In this story:

NATO: Yugoslavs siphoning gas from refugees' cars

British, NATO say Yugoslav officers arrested

NATO military leader given more flexibility

Nis hard hit in overnight attacks

U.S. sending more firepower

RELATED STORIES, SITESicon



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NATO military planners have been ordered to prepare for inspections of ships bound for Yugoslavia in an effort to cut off the oil fueling that country's armed forces.

As NATO's assault on Yugoslavia begins its second month, its staff has been told to draw up rules for a "visit-and-search regime" aimed at ships bound for Yugoslav ports. The inspections are part of an effort to cripple Yugoslavia's military capability by choking off its oil supply.

Saturday, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said the procedures for how ships will be searched, and which ships will be boarded, will be developed over the next few days by NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark and then approved by the alliance's political leadership.

Despite bad weather, NATO launched a series of strikes late Friday and early Saturday that included an attack on an oil refinery in Novi Sad, a fuel storage facility in central Serbia, three airfields and radio and television transmission towers.

Military vehicles in Kosovo were also hit, said Col. Konrad Freytag, a NATO military spokesman.

NATO: Yugoslavs siphoning gas from refugees' cars

Shea said NATO considers oil "arms-related material" that is covered by a United Nations arms embargo imposed on Yugoslavia. He did not give a date for when "visit-and-search" missions to interdict oil shipments would begin.

"It's very important to us to continue ... to tighten the taps -- to switch off the oil taps completely," Shea said. Yugoslavia's two oil refineries have been rendered inoperable by airstrikes and about 70 percent of its oil supplies destroyed, he said.

In what NATO believes is an illustration of the growing fuel problems in Yugoslavia, Shea said there have been reports that the Yugoslavs are siphoning gasoline from cars abandoned by ethnic Albanians who have fled Kosovo.

"That's the final act of robbery that they seem to be perpetrating against the Kosovar Albanians who have been forced to flee," he said.

Clark also was ordered to carry out intensified attacks on pipelines and tanker trucks in Serbia -- but not to bomb facilities in Montenegro, the other, pro-Western republic that makes up the Yugoslav federation.

British, NATO say Yugoslav officers arrested

Also Saturday, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has put a number of high-ranking military officers -- including generals -- under house arrest. Shea confirmed that report, characterizing the arrested generals as retired.

"There are many retired generals in Yugoslavia, because Milosevic retires generals all the time. He doesn't seem to have much trust in them. I wonder if they have much trust in him, and that is the real reason," Shea said.

In Belgrade, several thousand people turned out Saturday to mourn journalists and technicians who died in a NATO missile attack early Friday on the building housing Serbian state television. Yugoslav officials say at least 12 people died.

And with leaders of NATO countries in Washington for the alliance's 50th anniversary summit, several hundred of pro-Yugoslav demonstrators held a rally Saturday in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

They carried Yugoslavian flags, waved the three-finger Yugoslav salute and chanted anti-NATO protests, including "Stop the bombing. Stop the War" and "Hey, hey USA, how many kids have you killed today?"

Many in the crowd wore T-shirts bearing bulls-eye targets, which Yugoslavs have adopted as a show of defiance.

NATO military leader given more flexibility

Shea also said Saturday that NATO defense ministers have agreed to give Clark "all of the operational assets that he requires in terms of extra assets to prosecute the air campaign with maximum effect."

He also confirmed that Clark has been given additional "operational flexibility" to attack a wider range of military targets without having to first seek approval from NATO's political leaders. But Shea said that does not include any decision to introduce ground forces into Kosovo.

In an interview with CNN, Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said his country would be willing to let NATO use its territory and facilities to launch a ground offensive against Yugoslavia.

"We have a responsibility to collaborate with NATO" as a member of the alliance's Partnership for Peace program, Milo said.

But Shea once again emphasized that while NATO is reviewing contingency plans for the possible use of ground troops, any talk of a ground offensive is "premature."

"The air campaign is our best means of achieving our objective of degrading substantially the Yugoslav forces and obliging them to quit Kosovo," he said. "There is no other option that can do this as quickly and as decisively."

Nis hard hit in overnight attacks

Belgrade radio said a NATO attack early Saturday morning on Nis, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Belgrade, ripped through an industrial zone and knocked out electrical power and running water to nearby areas.

Novi Sad and Nis explosions
Serbian television showed explosions at oil refineries in Novi Sad, top, and Nis  

In Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, an oil refinery and the last remaining bridge were attacked in what Belgrade radio said was NATO's 12th strike on the city.

Two oil storage tankers were ablaze. Belgrade radio said six missiles were fired at the bridge but it appeared to have withstood the assault.

In the village of Bogutovac, near the central Serb city Kraljevo, a fuel depot owned by Beopetrol was struck. Twenty explosions jolted the southwestern Serb town of Novi Pazar, near Montenegro.

Belgrade radio also said 15 missiles hit Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital, causing extensive damage to civilian areas.

U.S. sending more firepower

The Pentagon announced Friday that 2,000 more U.S. ground troops are being sent to Albania -- along with 15 more tanks, 14 more Bradley fighting vehicles and nine more anti- personnel missile systems -- to reinforce a battalion of 24 Apache attack helicopters.

The additional deployments will begin next week, bringing the number of U.S. ground troops in Albania to 5,300.

Correspondents Brent Sadler and Patricia Kelly contributed to this report.



RELATED STORIES:
NATO unleashes missile assault across Yugoslavia
April 24, 1999
NATO beefs up forces, moves to block Yugoslav oil
April 23, 1999
Kosovar men, feared victims of massacres, appear at border
April 23, 1999
NATO marks 50th in midst of Balkan war
April 23, 1999
Red Cross says Yugoslavia won't allow visit to POWs
April 23, 1999
U.S. not sending 2nd carrier to Yugo war
April 23, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites:
  • Kosovo

Yugoslavia:
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News

Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosova Liberation Peace Movement
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • F-117s arrive at Aviano to support possible NATO operations
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis


Relief:
  • U.S. Agency for International Development (Kosovo aid)
  • Doctors of the World
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page
  • The Jewish Agency for Israel
  • Mercy International


Media:
  • Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
  • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
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