Bosnia Fighting Escalates as Serbs Retake Land

Rival armies fought pitched battles in northwest Bosnia on Saturday as rebel Serbs appeared to be regaining some territory recently lost to a successful Muslim offensive, U.N. officials and witnesses said.

The United Nations said the two sides were fighting for the northwestern town of Bosanska Krupa, and government troops were preparing to push on with their successful offensive in central Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The U.N. Protection Force said Bosanska Krupa, on the edge of the Muslim-held Bihac pocket, was being fiercely defended by units of the Bosnian Serb army.

“We think there must be a lot of casualties, and the town will not be easy for the Bosnian government army to capture,” U.N. spokesman Maj. Herve Gourmelon said.

Muslim troops have been trying to capture the town since launching an offensive 10 days ago that has driven Serb forces into retreat in northwest and central Bosnia and southwest of Sarajevo. They have taken more than 100 square miles of territory.

But a Reuters television crew in the northwestern Bihac pocket said the Bosnian Serbs were recapturing land from government forces and confirmed rebel Serb reports that they had managed to retake Kulen Vakuf.

According to the United Nations, the Muslims were meeting little resistance southwest of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, in their attempts to advance on Trnovo and to cut a vital supply road between rebel Serb territory in east and southeast Bosnia.