An American soldier was shot and wounded in the left shoulder Friday after challenging an intruder at a base in U.S.-controlled northern Bosnia.
The soldier was identified as Spc. Shawn R. Austin, a 21-year-old tank driver from Tacoma, Wash. The gunshot wound was not considered life-threatening, and Austin was in stable condition at a U.S. field hospital, spokesmen at U.S. headquarters in Tuzla said.He was the second GI in the 18,000-member American peacekeeping force in Bosnia to be wounded by hostile fire. A U.S. soldier was shot and wounded in the neck in late January by a sniper in Ilidza, a suburb of Sarajevo then held by Serbs but now under Muslim and Croat control.
In a separate incident in Visoko, northwest of Sarajevo, a German soldier was injured Friday morning in a mine accident, said Capt. Michael Jensen, a spokesman for the NATO-led peace forces in Zagreb, Croatia.
The soldier was injured when he stepped off the road, but "we don't know whether he stepped on a mine or a mine exploded in front of him," Jensen said. He was in stable condition.
Austin was shot at 1:45 a.m. (5:45 p.m. MST Thursday), while he was on patrol. He spotted an intruder in civilian clothes attempting to break through concertina wire around Camp Linda, in Bosnian government-held territory near Olovo, 40 miles south of U.S. headquarters, military officials said.
Austin challenged the intruder, who in turn fired a shot that hit the soldier in the left shoulder, spokesmen said. They did not know what kind of weapon the intruder was carrying.
Austin was on patrol with another soldier at the time and both returned fire, headquarters said. The intruder fled, and no more is known about him, spokesmen said.