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NATO planes silence Krajina Serb missile site

NAPLES, Italy: NATO warplanes patrolling over Croatia fired at and silenced a Krajina Serb position in the Knin area after they were targeted by surface-to-air missiles, a NATO spokeswoman said on Saturday.

"Two planes from the USS Roosevelt fired two anti-radar site missiles at a Croatian Serb SAM (surface-to-air) missile site," said Lieutenant Colonel Janis Witt from NATO's AFSOUTH base in Naples, southern Italy.

"The missiles were meant to destroy the radar site."

Witt said later that NATO had no further details about damage to the site but planes flying over the area had reported no further electronic contact.

"From all our indications the radar site did not come up again. It did not come up on screens any more," she said, adding that maybe it had been hit or maybe the Serbs had closed it down.

Witt said earlier the incident occurred around 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday evening and involved two electronic warfare EA-6B planes from the American aircraft carrier Roosevelt.

"The planes' electronic equipment showed that they had been targeted for a missile launch. They fired their own missiles before they could be attacked," Witt said.

She said that NATO warplanes, empowered to fire in self-defence, were flying over the region after a commander of United Nations forces on the ground had called for NATO air protection on Friday.

"That means they wanted NATO planes flying overhead or nearby in case close air support was needed," she said.

The two EA-6Bs involved returned safely to the Roosevelt, which is currently in the waters of the Adriatic off the coast of the former Yugoslavia.

Witt, asked later on Saturday about NATO's continued operations in the region, replied: "We have a number of planes available. We are still able to respond.

"We have aircraft available every day, sometimes flying patrols directly overhead or sometimes in other areas."

The incident came after Croatia launched a powerful offensive to crush a four-year rebellion by its Serb minority, capturing at least one major town and laying siege to the Krajina Serbs' mountain "capital", Knin.-Reuter