Serbs and Bosnians clash in Gorazde enclave

SARAJEVO (Reuter): The United Nations said yesterday Serbs launched assaults on Bosnian forces on the outskirts of Gorazde town in eastern Bosnia in the past 24 hours. Both sides reported casualties.

Gorazde town was mostly quiet but a single artillery round hit the town center on Thursday, killing three children and wounding seven others, UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) spokesman Rob Annink told reporters.

UN observers reported shelling in the Gradina highland north and southeast of Gorazde town, where Serbs and Moslems have been fighting earlier this week.

A Serb offensive on Gorazde led to NATO air raids on Sunday and Monday against Serb positions. Peacekeeping commanders ordered the bombing runs to protect UN personnel.

Serb shelling of the town has subsided since the air raids, but Serb troops have blocked UN traffic in Serb-held areas and surrounded two UN compounds, demanding the return of heavy weapons handed over as part a Sarajevo cease-fire accord.

Bosnian-controlled radio said 21 people were killed in the past 24 hours in the Gorazde pocket and the Bosnian Serb SRNA news agency said two Serb soldiers were killed and an unspecified number wounded.

Tank, artillery and small arms fire was also heard along front lines at Ustipraca at the east end of the Gorazde pocket, Annink said.

Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner fore Refugees (UNHCR), said the fighting prevented the emergency medical evacuation of wounded people in Gorazde and the repatriating of refugees.

"There's quite a bit of fighting along the confrontation lines, firing heard from almost all sides. Medivacs are not feasible without a cease-fire and a secure landing place," Janowski told reporters in Sarajevo.

In Sarajevo, a sniper fired at a tram passing the Holiday Inn yesterday and wounded four passengers, doctors at a city hospital told Reuters.

The injured were three women in their twenties and a 46-year- old man.

Serb and Bosnian-led forces traded artillery fire on several other Bosnian battlefronts in the past 24 hours,

They fought around the Moslem-held Maglaj area in northern Bosnia and the Serbs peppered the British peacekeeping base there with small arms fire on Thursday, Annink said.

The British peacekeepers returned fire, an almost a daily event, and there were no UN casualties, he said.

In northeast Bosnia, Annink said Serb forces had shelled the Tuzla airport area 17 times on Thursday, including six rounds that struck close to a UNPROFOR compound.

UN officials had said on Thursday they could not precisely pinpoint the source of the shelling, but Annink said it was Serbs who shelled the airfield from hilltop positions.

Serbs shelled several Bosnian army-held towns north of Sarajevo, hitting Srebrenik with 116 rounds and Olovo with 46, he said.

In the Vares region in north-central Bosnia, Annink said fighting raged on in the Dastansko area as part of a continuing Bosnian army offensive on Serb positions to the east. UNPROFOR recorded 190 detonations.