30 NATO Planes Swarm Serb Air Base in Retaliatory Attack
ZAGREB, Croatia (Reuter) - About 30 American, British, French and Dutch warplanes carried out a NATO strike on the rebel Serb airbase at Udbina in occupied Croatia Monday, NATO allied commander Adm. Leighton Smith told CNN television.
Smith told CNN television the strike, which was launched from Italy, was a success and no planes were lost but did not provide any detailed damage assessment.
The statement said the NATO aircraft attacked the Udbina airfield after a request and in close coordination with the United Nations Protection Force in former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR).
``The air strike ... was in response to attacks which had been launched from that airfield against targets in the Bihic area of Bosnia-Hervegovina in the past few days," it said.
NATO has been ready to unleash its allied airpower against Serb forces in Croatia after the U.N. Security Council granted it new powers to hit targets outside Bosnia used by Serb nationalists for the attacks on Bihac.
Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic welcomed the NATO raid.
``We would have liked it sooner, but it is never too late," he told CNN television. He had earlier complained NATO was being slow to react to the Serb bombing of Moslem towns in the enclave of Bihac.
U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi said the strike against the rebel Serb Udbina base in occupied Croatia was intended to prevent further use of the military airfield.
``The air action today was a necessary and proportionate response to the continued use of this airfield for hostile air attacks against the Bihac pocket of Bosnia-Herzegovina," Akashi said in a statement.
``It must be recalled that three air raids have been launched in the past two weeks from the airfield at Udbina. These air raids have included the use of napalm and cluster bombs and have caused civilian casualties and have hit the Bihac 'safe area,"' Akashi's statement said
``I hope that today's NATO air attack will deter any further attack on the Bihac safe area and its surroundings or on UNPROFOR personnel within Bihac," the UN envoy said.
