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Kosovo

NATO Launches Airstrikes Against Yugoslavia Amid Intensified Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched a series of airstrikes against Yugoslav military targets on the first night of Operation Allied Force, in an effort to force President Slobodan Milosevic to comply with the Rambouillet peace accord. Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic made a televised offer to cease operations against Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian majority if the airstrikes were halted, but the British government rejected the offer, insisting that Belgrade must comply with the peace accord. As the airstrikes intensified, Serb leaders called on their compatriots around the world to rise up against NATO interests, while a Serb mob attacked the US, French, British, and German embassies in Skopje, Macedonia.

Key Takeaways:

  • The airstrikes, carried out by US warships in the Adriatic, US and Italian strike aircraft, and B2 bombers from the US, targeted Yugoslav military bases, barracks, and air-defence sites, resulting in significant damage and loss of life.
  • Eleven people were reported killed in the first night of strikes, with severe damage being wrought on Yugoslavia's air defences, including the destruction of three Yugoslav MiG-29 fighters.
  • US National Security Adviser Samuel Berger stated that ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was intensifying, with further burnings of villages, sweep operations, and shelling into Albania reported.
  • NATO warplanes have concentrated their attacks on Yugoslavia's air defences, with plans to focus on attacking tanks and artillery razing Albanian villages in Kosovo once the air threat has been substantially reduced.
  • Yugoslavia's military has turned off its surface-to-air radar and is avoiding engaging with NATO aircraft, opting to avoid the barrage of radar-homing missiles used effectively against air defences in Iraq.
  • The outgunned Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) will likely continue to be pushed back by Serb forces until U.S. and allied warplanes begin daylight operations against Yugoslav units in Kosovo.
  • Belgrade has broken diplomatic relations with Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, with no indication of a willingness to accept Washington's demands for a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
  • Canadian aircraft from Bagotville, Quebec, participated in the first round of strikes, with three of their four assigned targets hit.

Statistics:

  • 4 aircraft from Bagotville, Quebec
  • 4 separate targets assigned to Canadian aircraft
  • 3 targets hit by Canadian aircraft
  • 11 people reported killed in the first night of airstrikes
  • 3 Yugoslav MiG-29 fighters shot down
  • Significant damage reported to Yugoslavia's air defences
  • Estimated number of refugees forced to flee Kosovo: thousands
  • Duration of airstrikes: ongoing

Sources:

  • Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic (CNN)
  • US National Security Adviser Samuel Berger (CNN)
  • NATO's supreme commander, US General Wesley Clark (CNN)
  • Canadian officials (The Ottawa Citizen)
  • Pentagon officials (The Ottawa Citizen)

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