EU Mediator Escapes Injury in 2 Attacks Near Sarajevo : Bosnia: Serbs blamed for assaults. Official had made disparaging remark about rebel leaders.

European Union peace mediator Carl Bildt escaped injury Friday when Bosnian Serb gunners attacked a road he was using to leave Sarajevo and then shelled an airfield where his helicopter was taking off.

The security situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina has plummeted to new depths since the Serbs’ hostage-taking won them guarantees from the United Nations that there would be no further air strikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The Bosnian Serb attacks--on the Mt. Igman road to Konjic, 30 miles southwest of Sarajevo, and on the Konjic airfield--came after Bildt made a dismissive comment Thursday when asked if he would be meeting Serbian leaders in Pale, their stronghold east of Sarajevo.

“I’m not a tourist,” he said. “I go to places which I consider essential for achieving something.”

Just before Bildt’s U.N. helicopter took off, three 105-millimeter shells landed 50 to 200 yards from Bildt’s helicopter and another one preparing to ferry two Western journalists wounded recently in Sarajevo, the capital, said U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko.

No one was hurt in the attack, which the United Nations blamed on the Serbs. Sarajevo’s airport has been closed since April because of Serbian threats.

Bildt flew on to Belgrade for talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the Bosnian Serbs’ former mentor.

Bosnia’s war began in April, 1992, with a Bosnian Serb nationalist rebellion, and Serbs now control 70% of the country.

Shelling and sniper fire in government-controlled parts of Sarajevo killed eight civilians and wounded 21 Thursday and Friday. Among the dead were a Sarajevo couple and their 5-year-old daughter, killed when a shell landed near a line of people waiting for water.

The Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA said five civilians were killed and four wounded Friday in Serb-held parts of the city.

Bosnian Serb attacks were reported again on the three government-held cities in eastern Bosnia--Srebrenica, Gorazde and Zepa.