Heavy Shelling Pounds Sarajevo Neighborhoods; 8 Die, 59 Hurt

Sarajevo’s streets were largely deserted Saturday as shells slammed into residential areas in the heart of the city. Authorities said at least eight people were killed.

The Bosnian Health Ministry also said 59 people were wounded. Streets where apartment buildings had been hit were littered with debris and shattered glass. Bloodstains marked where casualties had fallen.

The U.N. forces chief of staff in Bosnia, Brig. Gen. Kees Nicolai, sent a letter to Bosnian Serb commander Gen. Ratko Mladic demanding an immediate halt to recent shelling of residential areas and U.N. facilities.

Nicolai accused Mladic of violating the Geneva Convention and other treaties, and warned “such killing of civilians is liable to trials by an international court.”

Mladic has been named as a war crimes suspect by an international tribunal in The Hague.

Serbian shelling of the city has increased since the Muslim-led government army launched an offensive two weeks ago to crack the 3-year-old siege.

On Saturday, more than 50 shells hit residential and shopping areas in the city center, and 12 landed near the French Embassy, U.N. spokesman Maj. Guy Vinet said.

A rocket bomb, carrying hundreds of pounds of explosives, hit a garden in the old town but caused no casualties.

Two similar bombs that blasted holes in the city’s television center and a nearby apartment block Wednesday killed five people and wounded dozens.

Government and Serbian troops battled Saturday around the Serb-held southwestern Sarajevo suburb of Nedzarici, which borders the U.N.-controlled airport.

Fighting also was reported around a village farther to the southwest. Bosnian Serbs said five civilians were wounded in Serb-held suburbs.

A Bosnian army official said government troops penetrated Serb lines north and south of the city.

Vinet said the Serbs may have gained some ground in a western suburb Friday. But U.N. officials, who have been barred from front lines, are limited in their ability to confirm battlefield movements.