Yugoslav Troops Attack Key Bosnian City

The crucial city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina was attacked Sunday, and the Yugoslav army said it has cut to the heart of the town with paratroopers and tanks.

With a peacetime population of about 125,000, Mostar is a key objective for the Serb-led army trying to dislodge Muslim and Croat defenders to gain control of its strategic airport and cut off the western Bosnian heartland.

The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency and Sarajevo Radio both reported heavy damage to the ancient city from artillery fire. The radio also reported rocket strikes.

Tanjug said the Orthodox cathedral, the Roman Catholic church and the town’s 16th-Century bridge have all been hit, as has a newer bridge across the Neretva River. The main post office and many other buildings were destroyed, the radio said.

Casualties were said to be heavy on both sides, but the town was blockaded and no reliable figures could be obtained.

Mostar appeared to be just one focus of fighting that spread across the newly independent republic despite Belgrade’s withdrawal of some Yugoslav army units.

The scale of the conflict appeared to be making the dispatch of a United Nations peacekeeping force increasingly unlikely.

Belgrade Television showed pictures of a bridge across the Neretva at Capljina, south of Mostar, destroyed by artillery fire Sunday, and of buildings destroyed in the coastal town of Neum.

Fighting died down in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, although Bosnia earlier accused Serbian forces besieging it of preparing a final offensive to capture the capital.

But north of Sarajevo, fierce fighting was reported by both sides for villages around Zvornik and Tuzla. Bosanski Brod was rocketed and bombed from the air, and its oil refinery was hit again. Sarajevo Radio said a storage tank set on fire by shelling seven days ago was still burning while two others were completely burned out.

Zagreb Radio said fighting had also continued in Croatia despite the presence of thousands of U.N. peacekeeping troops.

It said Croatian forces near Bosanski Brod had captured five Serb-held villages nearby, while farther east 10 people were wounded by rocket fire on Osijek.

Dr. Arif Smajkic, a government medical official, told reporters in Sarajevo that 1,320 people have been killed in Bosnia since the fighting started in March, and 1,900 are missing.

Western sources said the constant shelling of Sarajevo, now devastated by explosions and running short of food, could force the United Nations to abandon the city as the headquarters for its peacekeeping mission in Croatia.

EC spokesmen said 370 children had been evacuated from the city Sunday. About 100 will go to Moscow, in return for Sarajevo’s care for children evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Smaller numbers will be found temporary homes in France and Britain.