Bosnia Serbs Raid U.N.-Guarded Arms Sites, Shell Sarajevo

Bosnian Serbs raided U.N.-monitored weapons collection sites and, ignoring warning shots from peacekeepers, used artillery impounded there to shell Sarajevo, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

As the Serbs began to set up the mortars at the U.N. heavy weapons collection site in the Serbian-held suburb of Ilidza, Ukrainian peacekeepers fired four warning shots, said Lt. Col. Gary Coward, a U.N. spokesman.

The Serbs ignored the shots and fired six shells. At a nearby weapons collection point in the suburb of Osijek, Serbs fired four rounds from a 105-millimeter artillery piece, Coward said.

All heavy weapons have been banned within 12 1/2 miles of Sarajevo since February, 1994, under the threat of NATO retaliation. Weapons were to be withdrawn or put under U.N. control.

Tuesday evening, Serbs fired 26 shells and government forces fired 12 in fighting in Sarajevo’s southwestern suburbs. Three people were wounded in a government-held area.

The fighting subsided only when North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets buzzed the area. Two U.S. F-16s flew over suburbs near the U.N.-controlled Sarajevo airport in a show of force that appeared to quiet fighting that has left at least 250,000 people dead or missing since Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from the former Yugoslav federation three years ago.

For the second time in two days, the rebel Serbs on Wednesday mocked U.N. control of the airport, revoking promises not to shoot at planes and forcing a U.N. aircraft en route to the Bosnian capital to turn back.

U.N. officials closed the airport in protest.

The United Nations said the flight Wednesday from Zagreb, Croatia, was a test of Bosnian Serb resolve to ban civilians from U.N. aircraft flying to and from Sarajevo.

The Serbs are demanding that U.N. planes stop carrying people who hold passports from Bosnia’s Muslim-led government in return for rebel promises not to shoot.

Most of the humanitarian aid that reaches Sarajevo’s civilians comes through the airport.