Two American F-16 fighter jets shot down four Bosnian Serb planes that violated the U.N. no-fly zone over Bosnia Monday and apparently tried to bomb a key munitions factory for Bosnia's Muslim-led government.
It was the first time warplanes flying under NATO command had fired on planes since the no-fly zone was declared in October 1992. It also marked the first military action by the alliance in its 44-year history.The action came a week after Bosnian Serbs finished withdrawing their artillery from around Sarajevo under threat of NATO air attacks. U.N. peacekeepers reported a "significant increase" in Serb sniper fire around the besieged city, raising concerns about Sarajevo's cease-fire.
Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, who commands NATO's southern front, said the American pilots saw the Serb planes "make a bombing maneuver" and then witnessed explosions on the ground.
One U.S. plane shot down three Serb planes with air-to-air missiles and a second destroyed a fourth, Boorda said in Naples, Italy. He said two of the Serb planes escaped by flying out of Bosnian airspace but did not say where. Four F-16s were present but two did not fire.
The Yugoslav-built Soko G-4 Super Galeb attack aircraft did not return fire at the U.S. planes, which are based at Aviano Air Base in northern Italy, Boorda said. No one was seen bailing out of the Galebs, NATO officials said.
Bosnian Serb officials denied their planes were in the air. But a Serb source confirmed four Serb aircraft were shot down.
U.N. sources said the Serb planes had attacked a munitions factory in Novi Travnik, a town in central Bosnia held by Bosnia's Muslim-led government. Boorda said NATO had received unconfirmed reports that bombs hit a storage facility and a hospital.
Asked whether the violation of the no-flight zone was a test of NATO resolve, Boorda replied, "If it was a test, I think we passed."
The United Nations canceled relief flights into Sarajevo and most land convoys in Bosnia, apparently fearing retaliatory attacks.
Serb artillery shelled Tuzla, a Muslim enclave in the north. U.N. officials said that could be a reaction to the air engagement, although the town is frequently attacked.
The U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga, which also provides planes for the Bosnia air patrols, was ordered to cut short a port call in Trieste, Italy, and return to its station in the Adriatic Sea off Bosnia.
President Clinton defended the NATO action, saying that "every attempt was made" to avoid shooting down the planes but they ignored warnings.
British Prime Minister John Major, who was meeting Clinton in Pittsburgh Monday evening, endorsed the action, saying the no-fly zone "was plainly infringed."
"There was no reason for these planes to be there. They were there with hostile intent," Major said in Washington, D.C. "They were given a warning. They declined that warning. They were shot down, and frankly they could expect nothing else."