Sarajevo Aid Flights Resume; Peacekeepers Beef Up Patrols

Aid flights resumed Sunday and U.N. peacekeepers beefed up patrols in Sarajevo, a city in mourning after a Serb sniper attack on streetcars killed one person and wounded 11.

With food dwindling to a three-day supply for the 360,000 residents of the Bosnian capital, 19 U.N. and two Red Cross planes rushed aid to Sarajevo on Sunday in anticipation of colder months and a possible Serb shutdown of the airport.

Over the summer, the international airlift was suspended frequently, and it had been shut down since Sept. 22, when NATO planes struck a Bosnian Serb tank. Aid flights resumed Friday, only to be called off after both government and Serb forces fired on planes at the airport.

U.N. spokesman Maj. Herve Gourmelon said the Serbs cleared seven food convoys for transit across Bosnia on Sunday, but again refused permits for fuel convoys.

Sarajevo’s mood was somber after Saturday’s sniper attack on trams in central Sarajevo. Among the wounded were five children. Gourmelon said the fire came from Bosnian Serb positions around the Jewish cemetery.

Reinforced anti-sniper teams patrolled “sniper alley” Sunday to try to prevent a repeat of Saturday’s attack, Gourmelon said.

About 1,100 shooting incidents were recorded Saturday, one of the highest totals in recent months, he said. In Serb-held Ilijas, on Sarajevo’s northwestern outskirts, two children were killed when an artillery round hit Saturday, U.N. peacekeepers said.