10 Killed in Sarajevo’s Bloodiest Day in a Month

Three shells sprayed shrapnel through a crowd waiting for food handouts on a playground Friday, killing eight people.

“What did I do wrong to them?” asked 10-year-old Sabahudin Ljusan, one of the wounded, who was taken to Kosevo Hospital. He was referring to Bosnian Serb fighters, who have surrounded the city for nearly two years.

The boy winced in pain with every breath as he lay on his side in a hospital bed. Shrapnel pierced his chest, just missing his spine, doctors said.

He was one of about 24 people wounded on the playground. Hospital officials reported two more dead and 16 injured in other explosions Friday. The death toll was the highest for one day in the besieged Bosnian capital since 15 people were killed Jan. 3.

The mortar shells fell after NATO fighter jets thundered over Sarajevo at unusually low levels for an hour, an apparent effort to reinforce Western threats to the Bosnian Serbs.

A U.N. ballistics crew examined the craters and concluded they were caused by three 120-millimeter mortar shells, launched from the Serbian side, said Maj. Jose Labandeira, a U.N. spokesman.

Bosnia’s Muslim-led government also blamed the shelling on the Serbs. A Bosnian Serb leader denied the besieging force had anything to do with it.