Nevertheless, officials in Washington and Brussels made clear that "Phase 2" of the bombing campaign will not include close-range direct attacks on Yugoslav army troops or Interior Ministry security forces that might halt the carnage. "Dark things are happening," said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea. diplomat who headed the observer team, were reportedly shot to death.īritish Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and other senior officials said security forces dispatched to Kosovo by Milosevic seem to be conducting a systematic and carefully planned campaign to crush all dissent in Kosovo, not only by attacking the rebels' Kosovo Liberation Army but also by brutalizing the population, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian. Two men who served as bodyguards for William Walker, the U.S. Refugees who fled into neighboring countries from Kosovo – the southernmost province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic – gave ghastly accounts of summary executions, murders of political activists, burned villages and men separated from families and marched off under the guns of Yugoslav troops and paramilitary police.Įthnic Albanians who cooperated with the international team of diplomatic observers formerly stationed in the rebellious province were reported to be among the targets. "I'm tremendously proud of the skill and bravery of the pilot and of the courageous individuals who participated in this operation." "I am pleased with the news that our pilot has been rescued successfully," President Clinton said in a statement from the White House. We have no know way of knowing if it was shot down," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said last night. "We do not know what caused this plane to crash. Pentagon officials gave no indication what brought down the F-117A, which was based at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., but assigned to a base in Italy for the current campaign. They had hesitated to do so until now out of fear of Yugoslavia's potent air defense system, a fear reinforced by yesterday's downing of a plane renowned for its ability to fly undetected and unscathed over heavily defended installations. The United States and its NATO allies agreed at a meeting in Brussels to expand the target list and area of the assault in an increasingly urgent effort to halt the wave of executions, murders of civilians and forced emigration reported in Kosovo. But there was no indication the assault was having any impact on the country's defiant leader, President Slobodan Milosevic.
Pentagon officials said the pilot, who apparently ejected before the jet pancaked into a pile of burning rubble, was scooped up and quickly whisked out of Yugoslav territory to the safety of a base in Europe, where he was undergoing medical treatment and said to be in good condition.Įarlier yesterday, NATO committed itself to broadening the air campaign, probably beginning today, as reports of atrocities escalated in the rebel province of Kosovo. A joint search and rescue team in helicopters was immediately launched to hunt for the pilot, who was the lone person aboard the warplane.
EST, was the first reported allied loss in four days of relentless attacks. The downing of the $42 million plane, around 3 p.m. F-117A stealth fighter went down over Yugoslavia yesterday as NATO warplanes again pummeled the country with bombs and missiles, defense officials said. The USAF F-117A Nighthawk Stealth fighter shot down is the first NATO loss in Kosovo.Ī U.S.