U.S. Troops’ Vehicle Torched in Bosnia; No One Hurt

Attackers hurled a firebomb Friday at a vehicle used by U.S. soldiers in the latest in a series of attacks on foreigners in Bosnian Serb territory. There were no injuries.

The vehicle, set ablaze, belonged to soldiers who were staying in the same house where an intruder stabbed a U.S. soldier with a sickle last week, wounding him.

Both attacks appear linked to a campaign of retaliation for a July 10 raid in which international troops killed one Bosnian Serb wanted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal and arrested another.

Soldiers at the house in this eastern town refused comment on the latest attack, which left a half-burned tree and a blackened patch of earth in front of the residence.

NATO-led peace enforcement troops, U.N. police and aid workers all have tightened security since July 10 but have not withdrawn from Bosnian Serb territory. Instead, diplomats have warned Bosnian Serb leaders to tone down anti-foreigner rhetoric.

Local Serbs working for international organizations say they receive telephone and letter threats almost daily.

In Washington on Thursday, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Javier Solana pledged that war crimes suspects “will be where they should be”--at the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague--”before the international community leaves Bosnia.”

Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic insisted Friday that none of the indicted will be extradited to The Hague, in the Netherlands. Plavsic has received Western support in her power struggle with ousted wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who tops the tribunal’s most-wanted list.