1 Killed, 6 Hurt as Grenade Hits Sarajevo Trolley

In a bloody scene reminiscent of the terror that reigned during more than three years of war, a rocket-propelled grenade struck a trolley car in downtown Sarajevo on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring at least six others.

The assault, from the Serb-held neighborhood of Grbavica, set off a 20-minute firefight in the Bosnian capital between the unidentified attackers and French troops who patrol the city as part of the NATO-led peace enforcement force.

The rocket attack was the most serious violation in Sarajevo of the fragile Bosnian peace settlement since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began enforcing the deal last month, and it was a clear indication that military forces in the volatile capital remain dangerous.

Witnesses said five French armored vehicles positioned themselves outside the Holiday Inn hotel, near where the trolley was hit, and fired 20-millimeter cannons toward Grbavica. It was not known late Tuesday whether the return fire was on target or whether there were casualties in the Serbian neighborhood.

Bosnian officials credited the trolley’s 30-year-old driver, Mektiba Djeblan, with saving untold lives by driving the damaged vehicle out of the line of fire. NATO said six passengers were injured, though witnesses reported as many as 19 casualties.

“It exploded like a shell. The streetcar was packed. Everybody started screaming,” passenger Nedzmina Cuprija, 25, who was wounded in the attack, told reporters at a Sarajevo hospital. “I collapsed on the floor, and someone took me out and put me in a car for the hospital. . . . I ride streetcars all the time, but who could have anticipated this?”

NATO said a fragment of the grenade also struck an armored vehicle carrying several American soldiers. Spokesman Maj. Nick Fitzgerald said an investigation into the attack was in progress, but he said investigators did not believe the U.S. vehicle was an intended target.

In a sharply worded condemnation of the incident, U.S. Adm. Leighton W. Smith, commander of NATO forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, demanded that local leaders “get their people under control now.” A NATO spokesman described the assault as a “senseless and cowardly act” and said it could threaten the peace process.

“Bosnian citizens of all beliefs deserve the opportunity to see the agreement reached in Dayton come to a successful conclusion,” said U.S. Col. John Kirkwood.

The afternoon attack presented IFOR, as the NATO-led Implementation Force is known, with a major test of resolve. The U.N. peacekeeping troops that were here until IFOR deployed about three weeks ago were largely ineffective in preventing attacks on Sarajevo residents--a failing that helped discredit the earlier mission throughout the former Yugoslav federation.

The Bosnian government sent a letter of protest to IFOR, demanding that it enforce the letter of the Dayton peace deal, which guarantees freedom of movement for Sarajevo residents and an end to sniper fire in the city. The trolley hit Tuesday was traveling on a major Sarajevo thoroughfare that became known as “sniper alley” during the war because of the many shootings there.

The timing of the incident, Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey told Bosnian television, was probably intended to disrupt plans for President Clinton’s upcoming visit to Bosnia, perhaps forcing the president to cut short a visit to the capital or skip it altogether.

Clinton will depart for the region Friday, administration officials said, but is not expected to visit Sarajevo.

The Dayton peace accord requires that all sections of Sarajevo come under Muslim control, but Serbs in Grbavica and Ilidza, the main Serbian areas, have threatened a mass exodus--as soon as this week--if they do not maintain some autonomy.