BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - A relief convoy from the Greek branch of
Doctors of the World was hit by a bomb today while en route from Macedonia to Kosovo's
capital, the humanitarian group said.
No injuries were reported but the group was shaken up by the attack, which occurred the
same day two American pilots flying an Apache helicopter were killed in a crash during a
nighttime NATO training mission in northeastern Albania.
The three trucks and a jeep carrying medicine to a Pristina hospital were traveling near
Djeneral Jankovic at about noon when the relief convoy was attacked. A NATO military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz, denied allied
forces had hit the aid convoy.
Yugoslavia's state-run Tanjug news agency, however, said NATO attacked the convoy near
Urosevac, 25 miles south of Pristina.
Calling it a ``clear target for NATO,'' Tanjug said the trucks had been cleared in advance
and were clearly marked as a humanitarian convoy.
Greece's press attache in Belgrade, Spyros Hadjaras, told Athens' Antenna radio that ``an
airplane of unknown nationality ... let a bomb go while the convoy was coming around a
turn, and this bomb fell around 100 meters, 150 meters (100 to 150 yards) from the first
truck.''
A representative for Doctors of the World, Panagiotis Papanastasiou, speaking from Athens,
said the three drivers and a Greek neurosurgeon ``are all fine. They arrived at the
hospital in Pristina. They were hit, but we are not sure if they were hit from the ground
or from the air.''
The convoy left Greece on Tuesday and entered Kosovo today. The group has been supplying
medical aid to Pristina in recent weeks. |
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