The federal army battled Slovenian militias Tuesday with tanks and artillery, shattering Yugoslavia's fragile truce in fierce clashes in the renegade republic.
Meanwhile, the army opened fire Tuesday on a crowd of Croats throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at federal tanks, gravely wounding one civilian.The shooting occurred at the Marshall Tito barracks in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Troops fired on the crowd with machine guns after a tank was hit by a fire bomb and started burning.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed the incident.
About 1,000 people began hurling objects as about 20 tanks left the barracks. The crowd apparently assumed the troops were en route to Slovenia, where federal soldiers were battling Slovenian militiamen.
The crowd blocked streets around the barracks with dump trucks and other heavy vehicles after the shooting.
Fighting also broke out on Slovenia's frontiers with Italy and Austria.
The army said at least seven troops were killed and 13 wounded in Tuesday's fighting in Slovenia. Slovenia's Information Ministry reported militiamen and federal soldiers were killed, but gave no figures.
Slovenian radio said there were "many victims."
Associated Press reporter John Daniszewski said at least two army soldiers killed and three wounded when a federal armored column tried to burst through a blockade to free another unit pinned down by Slovenian fire.
The fighting took place near Otocec, in the Krakovski forest, not far from the Croatian frontier. Jets screamed overhead and fired at targets on the ground. Black smoke from burning trucks clouded the sky as fighting raged.
The combat began when a unit of 12 armored vehicles tried to move through a ring of Slovenian forces before dawn and the two sides began trading fire, Daniszewski reported.
"We were just going back to our barracks when they suddenly attacked us," said Sasa Pantic, commander of the army unit, adding one armored vehicle received a direct hit from an antitank missile
One charred body was seated inside the vehicle. The injured were covered with blood. One of the wounded soldiers, cloaked in a blanket, was bundled into a reporter's car and driven to a hospital.
"My friend died in my arms," said one federal soldier, Bahrudin Kaletovic, his uniform streaked with blood.
The Slovenian militiamen flew when another federal armored unit arrived.
The Slovenes littered the forest with rocket launchers, food and bottles of beer and brandy. Two Slovenes were captured.
Elsewhere, the federal army said, Slovene militiamen attacked a post on the Italian border held by Yugoslav soldiers. Police and media in Austria also reported combat at three posts inside Slovenia near the Austrian frontier.
Reports on casualties at international borders were not available.
Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, briefly lost radio and television service after transmitters outside the city came under air attack. Residents fled to bomb shelters as explosions shook the city, which witnesses said were the sonic booms of warplanes streaking overhead.
Information Minister Jelko Kacin said Slovenian defense forces fired two surface-to-air missiles on the federal warplanes, but scored no hits.
Later, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia - three members of the eight-member collective presidency - issued a statement on Slovenian radio calling for an immediate halt to the fighting.
Slovenia and Croatia declared independence a week ago and the army intervened in Slovenia after the republic took control of international border posts. In three days of combat that began Thursday, Slovenia said at least 63 people died and 142 were wounded.
A cease-fire arranged by the European Community halted combat Saturday. The terms called for federal troops to return to barracks and the two republics to hold independence moves for 90 days. But Slovenia insisted the army disarm first and said it would not give up border posts with Austria and Italy.
Croatian television said the airport in its capital, Zagreb, was closed because the fighting in Slovenia was not far away. The nuclear power plant at Krsko, about 15 miles from the fighting, was shut down as a precaution, media reports said.
Slovenian President Milan Kucan told reporters the army crackdown means Yugoslavia "cannot be put back together again." But diplomatic initiatives to end the combat were under way.