Rebel Muslims, Serbs Launch Attack in Bosnia

The escalation in fighting that diplomats feared was just ahead arrived Tuesday as government positions in northwestern Bosnia came under fierce attack.

Renegade Muslims, along with Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, began attacking government positions south of Velika Kladusa, in the northern part of the Bihac pocket, shortly after midnight.

Maj. Herve Gourmelon, a U.N. military spokesman, said U.N. observers recorded more than 800 detonations and more than 1,500 bursts of gunfire Tuesday.

A convoy of nine U.N. aid vehicles had to be abandoned after being caught in cross-fire, he said, but there were no reports of injuries.

Sources in the renegade Muslim camp claimed their troops had advanced as far as 10 miles south of Velika Kladusa. U.N. officials, however, said they could not confirm any shift in the front lines between the government army and the rebels, who have been fighting alongside Serbs in northwestern Bosnia since 1993.

In north-central Bosnia, a U.N. observer saw a Serbian tank fire a shell on the village of Rakija, killing one civilian and seriously injuring another, Gourmelon said.