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- BRUSSELS (AFP) - The reported bombing of a sanitorium in southern Serbia
adds to a growing list of attacks, either acknowledged by NATO or attributed
to it, that have inflicted civilian casualties.
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- Serb officials put the death toll from
the following incidents at more than 460. Overall, they say, some 2,000
civilians have been killed since the start of the air campaign on March
24.
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- NATO has repeatedly denied that it deliberately
attacks non-military buildings and insists that all possible precautions
are taken to avoid civilian casualties.
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- - April 5: A 250-kilo (550-pound) NATO
bomb aimed at Yugoslav army barracks in Aleksinac in southern Serbia misses
its target and lands in a residential area. Serbs say death toll is 17.
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- - April 9: NATO hits homes near a telephone
exchange in the Kosovo capital, Pristina. NATO said civilian casualties
were possible but neither side provided a death toll.
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- - April 12: A NATO pilot fires two missiles
into a train crossing a bridge at Grdelicka Klisura in southern Serbia,
killing 55 people, according to Belgrade. NATO insists the bridge, a key
supply line for Yugoslav forces in Kosovo, was the target and that the
pilot saw the train too late.
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- - April 14: NATO bombs refugee convoys
in the Djakovica region of south-east Kosovo, leaving 75 dead, according
to Belgrade. NATO, without confirming the civilian toll, said it was targetting
military vehicles but admitted hitting two convoys.
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- - April 28: NATO, aiming for an army
barracks in the Serb village of Surdulica (250 kms/150 miles south of Belgrade),
bombs a residential area, leaving at least 20 civilians dead.
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- - May 1: NATO bombs a bridge at Luzane
near Pristina, killing 47 people aboard a bus which was travelling along
it. NATO, without confirming the figure, admitted the following day having
targetted the bridge without the intention of causing civilian casualties.
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- - May 7: A NATO air raid hits central
Nis in southeast Serbia, leaving at least 15 dead and 70 injured. NATO
said its planes were aiming for a landing strip and a radio transmitter
but that a cluster bomb had missed its mark.
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- - May 8: NATO mistakenly attacks the
Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists. The United States
and NATO said the intended target was a Yugoslav building with military
use, but US maps used in the planning of the operation were old and marked
the embassy at a previous address.
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- - May 13: NATO bombs the village of Korisa,
leaving 87 civilians dead according to the Serbs. The allies claim that
the civilians were being used a "human shields" and that Korisa
was a legitimate military target.
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- - May 20: A Belgrade hospital is hit
by a missile at around 1.00 a.m., killing three patients. NATO attributes
the accident to a missile which went astray during an attack on a nearby
military barracks.
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- - May 21: NATO bombs Istok prison in
north-west Kosovo. Alliance officials insist the prison was being used
as an assembly point for Serb forces in the province. Serbs say at least
100 inmates and a prison officer were killed.
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- - May 22: NATO admits bombing by mistake
positions of the Kosovo Liberation Army at Kosare, near the border with
Albania. Sources close to the KLA say seven guerillas were killed and 15
injured.
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- - May 30: NATO bombs a highway bridge
at Varvarin in a daytime raid in central Serbia. The Serbs claim 11 people
died while attempting to cross the bridge in their cars. NATO has not confirmed
whether there were cars on the bridge and insists the bridge was a legitimate
military garget.
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- - May 31: Missiles strike a sanatorium
at Surdulica, southern Serbia, killing at least 20 people, according to
the Serb authorities. NATO says it successfully attacked a military barracks
in the town but refuses to confirm, or categorically deny, hitting the
hospital.
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