Bosnian Serbs Instigated New Attacks, U.N. Says

In a new wave of terror in Bosnia, attackers apparently backed by Bosnian Serbs have murdered at least 17 Muslims and two Croats in a Serbian-held northern area, a report that has prompted aid agencies to consider mass evacuations of non-Serb minorities.

U.N. and Red Cross officials said Friday that they accepted claims by the Muslim organization Merhamet that the killings had been committed during the last three days in and around the town of Prijedor, 110 miles northwest of Sarajevo.

The Serbian police in Prijedor denied charges that the incidents were an intensification of “ethnic cleansing” and said they were investigating only seven deaths.

Peter Kessler, spokesman at the U.N. relief office in Zagreb, Croatia, said grenades were lobbed into homes of many of the victims, who were then robbed and executed.

“Apparently, these attacks are going forward with permission or even military assistance of the Bosnian Serb militia,” he said, adding that there were rumors the killings were in retaliation for the deaths of three Serbian soldiers whose bodies were taken to Prijedor.

The murders followed a grim pattern of using terror to scare off rival ethnic groups in Bosnia’s 2-year-old war. All three warring factions have been accused of the practice, but Serbs have been blamed for the worst excesses.

Washington, responding harshly to the reports, called for those guilty of war crimes to be brought to justice.

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible language the continuation of Bosnian Serb ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns” in Prijedor and the nearby town of Banja Luka, State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said.

In another setback for recent peace efforts, fighting intensified around Gorazde, a U.N. “safe haven” 35 miles southeast of Sarajevo that is held by troops of Bosnia’s Muslim-led government and surrounded by Serbs.

The United Nations said it will send 800 troops to the city, where the fourth consecutive day of fighting left five people dead and 17 injured Friday.