Army Moves on Croatian Stronghold
The Serb-dominated Yugoslav army sent scores of tanks and armored vehicles toward secessionist Croatia on Monday and launched a major offensive to capture the besieged Croatian stronghold of Vukovar.
Some of the federal armored reinforcements were reported taking up positions near Serbia’s border with Croatia while other units crossed into the secessionist republic and headed for Vukovar.
The city occupies a strategic point on the Danube River border with Serbia. Its capture would allow ethnic Serb insurgents, aided by the army, to control a large enclave in Slavonia, a region of eastern Croatia that has been the scene of much of the fighting since Croatia declared independence in June.
Also Monday, European Community nations meeting in Brussels postponed a decision on sending a multinational military force to quell the fighting in Croatia, which has killed more than 600 people in three months.
Fighting was reported at several other points in Croatia, further straining the shaky week-old cease-fire between the federal army and the breakaway republic.
“The situation in Vukovar is critical,” a Croatian Defense Ministry official said in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb.
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