-Caveat Lector- No New Bombing in Belgrade By ANNE GEARAN .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- NATO has not returned to bomb any targets in downtown Belgrade since Friday night's mistaken hit on the Chinese Embassy, but a U.S. military planner said the alliance has not sworn off the area. ``There's not a moratorium on any target that I know of,'' Maj. Gen. Charles Wald said at a briefing Wednesday. Wald, a strategic planner at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said NATO hit a few targets outlying Belgrade in recent days, and took advantage of the clear sky to concentrate on hitting airfields, bridges and other targets in the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo. ``I don't know of any order whatsoever from any place that I've heard of to stop,'' Wald said. Privately, U.S. officials say military planners are double- and triple-checking maps and target lists in Belgrade, the Serbian capital and base of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The attack on the Chinese Embassy killed three, strained U.S.-China relations and embarrassed NATO and the United States. Defense Secretary William Cohen and other officials blamed faulty maps and communications miscues for the error. At the time, NATO said the bombing came during the heaviest onslaught on downtown Belgrade to date -- including bombing runs on government buildings and a hotel NATO identified as the headquarters of the alleged war criminal nicknamed Arkan. NATO planes have flown close to 20,000 missions since the bombing began seven weeks ago, of which more than 5,000 were ``strike,'' or actual bombing sorties, Wald said. The alliance has dropped or fired about 10,000 bombs or missiles, taken out 11 of Milosevic's 14 MiG-29s and dozens of tanks, Wald said. About two-thirds of allied air strikes are carried out by U.S. planes and pilots. Tuesday represented NATO's most successful day yet, Defense Secretary William Cohen said at the same briefing, noting the allies flew more than 600 missions and struck nearly 70 targets. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Henry Shelton also was upbeat, but predicted Serb military and police forces could withstand NATO bombing for ``quite some time.'' Shelton noted that bombing has little effect on the sidearms and rifles carried by individual Serb troops. Those weapons are the main instruments used to evict Kosovo's ethnic Albanians from their homes in a two-month campaign of ethnic terror, U.S. officials say. NATO began bombing in March to force Milosevic to accept a peace deal for Kosovo and allow refugees to return home. Some 750,000 refugees crowd camps in bordering nations, while others are on the move inside Kosovo. ``It is possible that a force like the one Milosevic is using for ethnic cleansing and terror in Kosovo could hold out for quite some time,'' Shelton said. He would not be more specific, and insisted the alliance is prepared to continue its intensified bombing for as long as necessary. Also Wednesday, the Air Force and Navy activated another 2,173 reservists and 35 more aircraft for the Kosovo conflict. That brought to 4,409 the number of reservists ordered to active duty so far. Cohen said last week that a total of 5,035 reservists would be activated in the current round, but the services have yet to pick some of the units to be included, officials said. Clinton has authorized the Pentagon to activate as many as 33,102 reservists. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
