
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 30, 1995                   TAG: 9508300083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA=HJERZEGOVINA                                 LENGTH: Medium

NATO BOMBS SERBS

In their most massive attack yet on Bosnian Serbs, wave after wave of NATO warplanes bombed Serb targets around Sarajevo early today in retaliation for a marketplace massacre that killed 37 people.

Jets roared over Sarajevo at about 2 a.m. (8 p.m. EDT Tuesday), and the first explosions were heard 90 minutes later from the southeast, in the direction of the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale.

Observers in Sarajevo also could see bright flashes and hear explosions from the direction of Vogosca, a Serb-held suburb a few miles north of Sarajevo. There is a Bosnian Serb munitions factory in the town.

The sky over Vogosca was red and a huge cloud of smoke could be seen in the predawn light. There appeared to be a large fire burning past a frontline hill north of the capital.

President Clinton, vacationing in Jackson Hole, Wyo., called the attack ``an appropriate response to the shelling of Sarajevo. I think it is something that had to be done.''

The Western allies demanded retaliation after U.N. investigators concluded the Serbs were responsible for the mortar attack near a crowded Sarajevo market Monday that killed 37 people.

NATO gave no details of its attack. ``We hope that this operation will also demonstrate to the Bosnian Serbs the futility of further military actions,'' said a statement released in Brussels, Belgium, by NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes.

Maj. Panagiotis Theodorakidis, a NATO spokesman in Naples, Italy, added that the attacks have gone ``a significant way'' toward eliminating the ability of the Serbs to bomb Sarajevo.

A NATO source said the attacks could end today.

Claes said the attack was approved jointly by Gen. Bernard Janvier of France, the U.N. commander in former Yugoslavia, and U.S. Adm. Leighton Smith, NATO's southern Europe commander.

Russian officials had argued against any attack.

The NATO attack was certain to alienate the Serbs, who peace mediators say have to make concessions before any deal to end the war would work.

To prevent the Serbs from retaliating by taking peacekeepers hostage as they did after previous air strikes, the United Nations hastily pulled its troops out of Serb-held areas.

by CNB