For a second straight day Monday, NATO bombed Bosnian Serb ground forces attacking the Muslim enclave of Gorazde. But the raid had no apparent effect.
A spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Belgrade, Lyndall Sachs, said Bosnian Serbs shelled Gorazde after Monday's NATO attack. Gorazde city official Esad Orhanovic said in a ham radio broadcast that the Serbs continued pounding the city center, leaving many buildings in flames.At least two tanks and personnel carriers were struck in the 2:24 p.m. bombing run, the Pentagon said. Two U.S. F-18 jets based in Aviano, Italy, made the flyover, and one warplane dropped bombs, Pentagon officials said.
The United Nations said three bombs were dropped, destroying a Serb tank "firing directly into the town."
U.N. peacekeepers who had came under fire in the city requested the NATO air protection.
Monday's airstrike came hours after Bosnian Serbs suspended peace talks with U.N. and U.S. envoys and struck anew at Gorazde with artillery, tanks and heavy machine-gun fire.
U.N. officials in Belgrade said Monday that 200 refugees were wounded in an artillery attack on a former schoolhouse.
"What the United Nations wants is for the Serbs to stop the shelling and to withdraw and to resume the negotiations," President Clinton said after Monday's airstrikes.
For nearly two weeks, Serbs have been attacking Gorazde, which is on the main highway between their positions to the southwest and east.
Tank and artillery fire was "quite heavy" Monday, said Charles Redman, the U.S. envoy to Bosnia.
In Sunday's attack, two U.S. F-16 fighters bombed a Bosnian Serb tank and command post. U.N. officials said both targets were responsible for firing into the enclave.
Gorazde is one of the six "safe areas" for Bosnian Muslims designated by the United Nations last year.
The attack Sunday was NATO's first on ground positions in its 44-year history. In February, NATO jets downed four Serb planes violating a "no fly zone" over Bosnia.
Redman said any attempt to restart the peace talks would have to wait until the situation in Goradze was resolved.
U.N. officials said it took 15 minutes for the U.N. chain of command to agree on the bombing runs, which the officials took great pain to describe Monday as close air support to defend U.N. forces rather than air strikes.
The United Nations put the Sarajevo airlift and aid convoys through Serb-held territory on hold Monday out of safety concerns.
Madeleine K. Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said she's optimistic a diplomatic settlement eventually can be reached.
"The only way to resolve this issue is at the bargaining table, the negotiating table, not at the battlefield," Albright said.
"The United Nations made it absolutely clear that there were U.N. personnel in Gorazde, that an attack on the town would be interpreted as a clear violation of the rules," Clinton said.
Bosnian Serb leaders denied any U.N. officers were threatened.