Morristown Citizen Tribune Friday, March 26, 1999 National News NATO Hits Serb Army, Police Facilities WASHINGTON (AP) - NATO forces have seriously damaged Yugoslavia's military, but Serb forces including paramilitary ``ethnic cleansing'' bands remain in Kosovo and continue to kill and persecute ethnic Albanians, top U.S. officials said today. ``We've taken down a substantial proportion'' of Yugoslavia's air defenses and command and control assets, said U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, supreme NATO military commander. But Clark, speaking on NBC's ``Today'' show, said Yugoslavia ``still has forces out in the field and, to be candid, of even more concern are the so-called paramilitary forces, including gangs of hardened criminals which have in the past and are apparently now being employed in ethnic cleansing operations against the Kosovar Albanian population.'' U.S. and allied forces have suffered no losses and encountered little resistance during two days of air attacks, Clark said. But Serb military activity in Kosovo was intensifying despite the NATO attacks. Clark, speaking from his headquarters in Brussels, said he had fully expected that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic would step up aggression against ethnic Albanians, whose plight sparked the NATO action this week. ``This was entirely predictable at this stage,'' Clark said. A third day of airstrikes would begin later today, Clark said, focused on further reducing Yugoslavia's formidable air defenses, which have, as yet, been withheld from the battle. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, also on NBC, insisted the 19-member allied coalition against Yugoslavia remains united behind the air campaign - despite pressure from Italy to return to negotiations - and that Russia is more concerned with Serb intransigence than with the key U.S. role in a campaign against one of Moscow's traditional allies. Albright expressed concern about possible continued violence against U.S. embassies as a result of the strikes. ``We are very concerned, obviously, about the security of our embassy personnel all over the world and we are taking all necessary precautions,'' Albright said. In a special satellite message beamed early today to the people of Serbia and Yugoslavia, President Clinton blamed the attacks on Milosevic. ``Right now he's forcing your sons to keep fighting a senseless conflict that you did not ask for and that he could have prevented,'' Clinton said in the taped message. The nations of NATO, he said, tried to avert the conflict ``through every means we knew to be available.'' Thursday night on CNN's ``Larry King Live'' program, Defense Secretary William Cohen, said the ``targets that we were after we successfully hit.'' Cohen wouldn't reveal the targets. But defense officials said they included anti-missile batteries, command, control and communications sites, ammunition and fuel dumps, bases, barracks and other military structures across Yugoslavia u from near the capital of Belgrade to the Kosovo capital of Pristina to Montenegro, which with the state of Serbia makes up Yugoslavia. Hitting fuel dumps would slow Yugoslavia's tank corps, one official said, adding that NATO wouldn't strike tanks and troops directly until the U.S.-led alliance reached a much stronger attack phase. ``We're not there yet,'' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. NATO missiles and bombs hit more than 40 targets in the first night of bombing. Allied planes also shot down at least three MiG jet fighters and destroyed more on the ground. Thursday night, Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from Navy ships in the Adriatic and B-2s led the NATO attack. B-52 bombers, which took the lead Wednesday night, didn't fly on the second day to launch cruise missiles. Instead, jet fighters such as F-15s and F-16s, equipped with precision-guided munitions, dominated the air campaign, a defense official said. About 400 NATO aircraft are deployed for the airstrikes, about half American. Clinton said crippling Milosevic's military could be achieved without ground troops. Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, laid out the now familiar choices for Milosevic: Make peace by agreeing to self rule for the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and a 28,000-member NATO peacekeeping force or face NATO's growing wrath. Albright said there was no indication Milosevic was ready to talk peace. She said ``diplomatic channels remain open,'' though the government in Belgrade announced Thursday it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States, Britain, France and Germany. The USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group also was set to depart today from Norfolk, Va., toward the Mediterranean Sea en route to the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon was considering using some of the Navy ships to support the NATO campaign. The battle group included an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, a destroyer, a frigate and an attack submarine. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers introduced two bills aimed at bringing down the Milosevic government and providing weapons to ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.