SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- NATO-led troops came under fire Saturday while destroying the Bosnian portion of a key rail link between Serbia and Yugoslavia's other republic, Montenegro, which has opposed Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The commander of the NATO-led forces in Bosnia, U.S. Gen. Montgomery Meigs, said the railway that runs through Bosnia was cut to prevent it from being used for military purposes by the Yugoslav army. ``The railroad comes out of ... Yugoslavia into Bosnia-Herzegovina and back into Montenegro. We had indications that it would be used by military elements,'' said Meigs, who heads the NATO-led stabilization force stationed in Bosnia. Yugoslavia, which consists of Serbia and Montenegro, has been under NATO air attacks for 11 days in an international effort to force Milosevic into signing a peace deal for the Serbian province of Kosovo. The president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, has spoken out against both the NATO attacks and also Milosevic's confrontational policy toward the West. Western officials said Friday they have evidence Milosevic is plotting to oust Djukanovic. The rail line is a major link between the two republics and could have been used to transport additional troops into Montenegro. Maj. Sheena Thomson, a spokeswoman for the stabilization force, known as SFOR, said a ``controlled detonation'' cut the rail line Saturday morning. She said it would be reopened when the conflict in Yugoslavia ends. Col. Lee Hockmann, an SFOR spokesman in Sarajevo, said Belgrade has one other railway link to Montenegro, through Kosovo. Meigs said the NATO-led forces in Bosnia, who are not taking part in the attacks on Yugoslavia, came under automatic weapons fire while blowing up the Yugoslav rail link in eastern Bosnia, near the Yugoslav border. He said SFOR troops fired back and that his forces suffered no casualties. Thomson said later that the soldiers saw one of the attackers fall, apparently hit. Thomson said SFOR could not verify his condition. Bosnian Serb television claimed the SFOR soldiers killed Vidoje Tomic, a railway guard. The television showed what appeared to be a body lying in the grass and a witness saying SFOR soldiers attacked the guard and that he did not resist. The Bosnian Serb claim could not be independently confirmed.
