Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 2, 1995 TAG: 9505020147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ZAGREB, CROATIA LENGTH: Medium
Opening a new battle front that threatens a major escalation of the Balkan war, Croatia attacked with warplanes, tanks and infantry Monday to punch through Serb defenses.
The assault, which began at dawn, caught the Serbs off-guard. By nightfall, Croatian forces had seized one of two bridges across the Sava River that are a vital link between Serb-held territory in Bosnia and Croatia.
The fighting threatened to merge with the 3-year-old war in neighboring Bosnia. Many observers have been predicting that result because of the failure of the four-month truce that expired in Bosnia on Monday, and the reduction of the size of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Croatia.
A seven-hour emergency meeting with the two sides called by the top U.N. diplomat for former Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi, at Zagreb's airport ended inconclusively Monday night.
Monday's was the heaviest fighting reported in Croatia since 1991, when the Serbs captured one-third of the country after it seceded from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
The fighting was in Sector West, one of four Serb-occupied parts of Croatia, about 60 miles southeast of Zagreb, Croatia's capital. The sector borders Serb-held Bosnian territory on its south.
Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in a letter to German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel that Croatia did not intend to attack other Serb-held territory. He said this attack was aimed at securing the Zagreb-Belgrade highway, and would be over soon.
Fears of spiraling violence increased, however, when Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic hinted that his forces might attack Croatian towns in retaliation.
``We don't intend to respond only by defending ourselves, but also by attacking where we think we should,'' he said.
Late Monday, shells apparently fired by Serbs landed in two cities south of Zagreb. There was no word on casualties in the cities, Karlovac and Sisak.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic threatened to send help to Serbs in Croatia. U.N. sources reported the airport of the Croatian port of Dubrovnik was hit by five to seven shells Monday. Bosnian Serb guns are within range of the airport.
The Croatian assault included two MiG-21 jets striking at one of the two key bridges across the Sava.
U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel said the bridge was not hit but that the jets struck targets in nearby Stara Gradiska. A U.N. source said the bridge that was not the target of the airstrike had been taken by Croat forces.
Petar Damjanjic, a spokesman for the Croatian Serb leader Martic, claimed the planes attacked a column of refugees, killing or wounding some. There was no confirmation of that.
Three Jordanian peacekeepers were seriously wounded in the fighting Monday. Serbs detained about 115 U.N. troops, mostly Argentines and Jordanians, U.N. officials reported.
Elsewhere, more than 2,500 Croatian troops opened up three separate fronts in Sector West.
U.N. officials said Croatian troops moved into Serb-held Jasenovac; Serb troops apparently fled.
by CNB