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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James R. Barrett who wrote (5320)	4/24/1999 3:48:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

NATO Forces Swelling Near Kosovo 03:31 p.m Apr 24, 1999 Eastern By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite NATO's public insistence that air power alone will prevail, a growing allied commitment of nearly 30,000 troops near Kosovo could become the seed for a ground thrust into Yugoslavia this summer. Alliance leaders, celebrating an uneasy 50th birthday, say repeatedly that no attack is planned to drive Serb troops from Kosovo. They say bombs and cruise missiles, which have pounded Serbia for a month, can in time defeat Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. But a trickle of western tanks and U.S. attack helicopters are now reinforcing nearly 20,000 allied soldiers in Albania and Macedonia as NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark starts to revisit plans for peacekeeping -- or peacemaking -- in Kosovo. That allied force, far short of what would be needed for either an invasion or ''permissive'' peacekeeping in Kosovo, is expected to grow to more than 30,000 in the coming weeks. ''The (NATO) force near Kosovo is far too small now and it is not designed for heavy attack. You would need at least 100,000 -- including a lot of support troops -- and months of preparation'' for an outright attack, retired U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor told Reuters. ''I don't think they (Serb Forces) have been particularly weakened by bombing yet. They may be short on fuel but they seem quite comfortable in Kosovo right now,'' Trainor said. Even if Serb forces are softened by air assaults -- including from 24 U.S. Apache attack helicopters now gathering in Tirana -- a fight in the mountains of southern Yugoslavia could cost high casualties on both sides. And sustaining an attack force could be a nightmare, especially with only one road leading into Kosovo from Albania and one from Macedonia. ''The Serbs, who trained extensively to fight on the other side during the Cold War, know the land. Force support would be a major problem,'' said former U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Larry Korb, now with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Nearly 15,000 Western European troops, mostly British and French, are in Macedonia. The United States said Friday it was quickly increasing a protective force for its Apaches in Tirana from 3,300 to 5,300 soldiers and including 15 heavy M-1A2 tanks, eight 155-mm howitzer artillery pieces and tracked anti-tank ''TOW'' and ''Javelin'' missile launchers. Another 24 Apaches also may join the Tirana force once all of the protective elements are gathered at the tiny airport. Allied forces in the region are expected to swell to more than 30,000 in coming weeks, including 14 British Challenger battle tanks now in the area and another 14 en route. The British along with officials from Canada and several other countries have been privately suggesting that a ground assault might be necessary after Serb forces in Kosovo are sufficiently ''softened'' by air assaults and if Milosevic does not agree to a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. ''President Milosevic's war machine has been seriously weakened. It's going to be weakened again, day by day, week by week,'' Britain's chief of defense staff Gen. Charles Gutherie, told a news conference in Washington Thursday. ''And we will be able to choose our time,'' Gutherie added. But British Defense Secretary George Robertson and Defense Secretary William Cohen have repeatedly stressed that the allies are simply not now prepared to agree on ''an invasion force.'' One senior U.S. defense official, who asked not to be identified, said it would be difficult to get Hungary to agree to allowing an invasion of neighboring Yugoslavia through its territory. Even massing allied forces in Hungary would keep Serb forces tied up there and away from defending Kosovo. ''But even if Hungary agreed to an invasion, it would mean that you would have to fight your way down through Serbia to get to Kosovo,'' the official said. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved