(31 Mar 1999) English/Nat
United States officials say that although NATO's air assault on Yugoslavia is far from accomplishing its goals, the alliance is pressing ahead with an intensified targeting of Serb troop concentrations in Kosovo.
Although Pentagon officials refuse to give a clear picture of the amount of damage believed to have been inflicted on Yugoslavia's air defence network, they say it continues to pose a threat to allied pilots.
On Tuesday Department of Defence officials repeated that NATO had no illusions that its airstrikes could stop the Serbs' house-to-house pillaging of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
There are reports that ethnic Albanians are being killed or driven from the area by the tens of thousands.
During a briefing for reporters U-S Vice Admiral Scott Fry, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said bad weather has caused many NATO attack missions - particularly those using laser-guided bombs - to be scrubbed.
He showed a colour-coded chart indicating weather-limited airstrikes each day except the first, March 24.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"We are using the red, yellow, green stop light charts that the military has such great affinity for. As you could see on night one of the operation we were able to complete every mission without the impact of weather - but as the operation has continued the weather has gotten more difficult with each succeeding night and we have had instances where sorties were unable to complete their missions in their target areas because they were weathered out.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Vice Admiral Scott A. Fry, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
To step up NATO's attacks, five U-S Air Force B-1 long-range bombers are heading for Europe to join B-52 bombers that have been launching cruise missiles at Yugoslavia since last Wednesday's start of Operation Allied Force.
Officials say the B-1s, from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, are armed with gravity bombs and cluster munitions that are likely to be used against staging areas of Serb military forces in Kosovo.
Rear Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, chief of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the briefing that Yugoslav air defences have sustained \"significant damage\" but he declined to be more specific.
He also gave details of other targets and released photographs of damage inflicted by the NATO bombing.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"We started by attacking garrisons and the support structure which support these forces in the field or in their garrisons and then subsequently have gone into attacks on deployed forces or forces in their staging areas or on the staging areas themselves.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Rear Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, chief of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
NATO's hope is that more concentrated air attacks on Serb troop formations and armour - hampered so far by poor weather - will begin to disrupt the localised attacks against Kosovar Albanian civilians.
Working against NATO forces, however, is the continued threat posed by Serb air defences.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
