Serbs recaptured some land in northwestern Bosnia on Wednesday, chipping away at the government's most stunning battlefield successes of the war.
The United Nations confirmed Serb military gains around the Bihac pocket, where Muslim-led government troops had gained ground in recent weeks. Serbs advanced 2 miles west from Bosanska Krupa toward the strategic Grabez high ground, said Maj. Herve Gourmelon, a U.N. spokesman.The Serbs said they recaptured the village of Grabez, east of Bihac. A separate report carried by SRNA, the Bosnian Serb news agency, said Serb troops took a Muslim stronghold around the Ripac gorge, 5 miles southeast of Bihac.
There was no confirmation of either report.
The government recently gained hundreds of square miles of territory in the Bihac region and further south. On Thursday, the army and Bosnian Croat militias took Kupres, 50 miles west of Sarajevo, dealing the Serbs their biggest loss since the war began 21/2 years ago.
Though the Serbs still hold 70 percent of Bosnia, their battlefield reputation has been tarnished by the recent losses. They are also thought to lack fuel and other supplies since Serbia cut off its aid.
The Bosnian Serb assembly convened Wednesday in the Serb stronghold of Pale, outside Sarajevo, to discuss a response to the government's battlefield successes. The assembly was expected to issue a formal declaration of war.