At least 12 Bosnians were killed by a Serb artillery shell that hit a soccer stadium full of refugees across the border in Croatia, Croatian authorities said Thursday.
The incident came as Serb forces pressed an offensive in frontier areas of northern and eastern Bosnia. Serb militiamen also dueled with the Muslim-led defenders of Sarajevo in heavy fighting that flared in the besieged capital.Croatian officials said the shell hit a stadium in the border town of Slavonski Brod that was housing about 3,000 Bosnian men who fled to Croatia to avoid having to fight in Bosnia's civil war. At least 31 people suffered serious wounds in the shelling late Wednesday.
In London, leaders of Bosnia's three ethnic factions met separately with Portuguese diplomat Jose Cutiliero, who is mediating in peace talks sponsored by the European Community. There was no immediate word on progress.
The Serbs recently renewed a drive to gain control of all of eastern and northern regions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where more than 7,500 people have died in fighting since ethnic Croats and Muslims declared independence from Yugoslavia on Feb. 29. Bosnia's Serbs opposed independence.
The 10-day offensive has virtually wiped away resistance in the region along the Sava River separating Croatia and Bosnia.
The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency said Serb forces had reached the outskirts of Bosanski Brod, a Bosnian city on the Sava River across from Slavonski Brod. The cities are about 100 miles north of Sarajevo.
It was not immediately known whether Serb gunners fired more shells into Croatia.