Government forces captured Serb-held territory north of Sarajevo and appeared to be preparing a push into central Bosnia, U.N. officials said Monday.
The Bosnian capital was quieter after Muslim-led government soldiers and Bosnian Serbs traded shelling during the weekend, prompting an overflight by NATO warplanes and warnings from the United Nations.The Bosnian army was believed to have captured six to eight square miles in the Cemerska hills, said U.N. spokesman Maj. Koos Sol.
Bosnian military officials said the army wants to gain control of high ground in the area to improve access to the northern city of Tuzla, the biggest city in government-held territory outside of Sarajevo.
The U.N. figure was lower than that given by the commander of the Bosnian army's 1st Corps, Gen. Vahic Karavelic, who said in an interview with the Oslobodjenje newspaper that his troops captured 24 square miles.
He also said 70 Serb soldiers were killed and 150 were wounded, and a large amount of weaponry and other materiel captured. There was no independent confirmation.
U.N. commander Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose met Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic on Sunday to protest the fighting. Another U.N. official spoke by phone with the Bosnian Serbs at their headquarters in Pale, east of Sarajevo.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was to meet later Monday in Geneva with top U.N. envoys to discuss the situation. U.N. envoy Yasushi Akashi, mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg and Gen. Bertrand de Lapresle, in charge of U.N. peacekeeping operations in former Yugoslavia, were due to attend.
It was to be their first meeting with Boutros-Ghali since the United Nations, in response to Serb attacks, agreed in October to give NATO forces wider discretion to bomb targets.