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"Allied Force" redirects here. For computer game, see Falcon 4.0: Allied Force.
The NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia (code-name Operation Allied Force or, by the United States, Operation Noble Anvil)[20] was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 11, 1999. The NATO bombing marked the second major combat operation in NATO's history, following the September 1995 Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[edit] GoalsNATO's objectives in the Kosovo conflict were stated at the North Atlantic Council meeting held at NATO headquarters on April 12, 1999:
[edit] StrategyOperation Allied Force predominantly used a large-scale air campaign to destroy Serbian civilian and military infrastructure from high altitudes. Ground units were not used because NATO wanted to minimize the risk of losing forces, as well as avoiding public criticism related to its relative ineffectiveness against mobile ground targets. Strategic targets, such as bridges, official government facilities, and factories, were also bombed. Long-range cruise missiles were used to hit heavily defended targets, such as strategic installations in Belgrade and Pristina. Infrastructure such as power plants[21], water processing plants and the state-owned broadcaster were also targeted. [edit] OperationNATO's bombing campaign involved 1,000 aircraft operating from air bases in Italy, and the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt stationed in the Adriatic Sea. At dusk, F-18 Hornets of the Spanish Air Force were the first NATO planes to bomb Belgrade and perform SEAD operations. BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from ships and submarines. The USA was the dominant member of the coalition against Serbia, although all NATO members were involved. During the ten weeks of the conflict, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions. For the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), this mission was its first conflict participation since World War II. In addition to air power, one battalion of Apache helicopters s from the US Army's 11th Aviation Regiment was deployed to help combat missions. The regiment was augmented by pilots from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Attack Helicopter Battalion. The battalion secured AH-64 Apache attack helicopter refueling sites, and a small team forward deployed to the Albania–Kosovo border to identify targets for NATO air strikes.
The campaign was initially designed to destroy Serbian air defenses and high-value military targets. Over 300,000 Kosovo Albanians fled into neighboring Albania and Macedonia, with many thousands displaced within Kosovo. By April, the United Nations reported 850,000 refugees had fled from Kosovo. Another 230,000 were listed as internally displaced persons (IDPs): driven from their homes, but still inside Kosovo. The cause of the refugee exodus formed the basis of United Nations war crimes charges against Slobodan Milošević and other officials responsible for directing the Kosovo conflict. The Serbian side and its Western supporters claimed the refugee outflows were caused by a mass panic in the Kosovo Albanian population, and the exodus was generated principally by fear of NATO bombs. Many accounts from both Serbs and Albanians identified Serbian security forces and paramilitaries as the culprits, responsible for systematically emptying towns and villages of their Albanian inhabitants by forcing them to flee.[22] German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer claimed the refugee crisis was produced by a Serbian plan codenamed "Operation Horseshoe". The United Nations and international human rights organizations were convinced the crisis resulted from a policy of ethnic cleansing. A postwar statistical analysis of the patterns of displacement, conducted by Patrick Ball of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[23] found a direct correlation between Serbian security force operations and refugee outflows, with NATO operations having little effect on the displacements. NATO military operations increasingly attacked Serbian units on the ground; as well as continuing the strategic bombardment. Montenegro was bombed several times, and NATO refused to prop up the precarious position of its anti-Milošević leader, Milo Đukanović. "Dual-use" targets, used by civilians and military, were attacked; the targets included bridges across the Danube, factories, power stations, telecommunications facilities, headquarters of Yugoslavian Leftists, a political party led by Milošević's wife, and the Avala TV Tower. Some protested that these actions were violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions. NATO argued these facilities were potentially useful to the Serbian military and that their bombing was justified. At the beginning of May, a NATO aircraft attacked an Albanian refugee convoy, killing 50 people. NATO admitted this five days later, and the Serbs accused NATO of deliberately attacking the refugees. On May 7, NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese journalists. NATO claimed they were firing at Yugoslav positions. The United States and NATO apologized for the bombing, saying it occurred because of an outdated map provided by the Central Intelligence Agency. The bombing strained relations between the People's Republic of China and NATO, provoking angry demonstrations outside Western embassies in Beijing. Un-named, high-ranking NATO sources (confirmed in 2005) stated that the attack was deliberate: "The NATO sources told Defense & Foreign Affairs that the attack was based on intelligence that then Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević was to have been in the Embassy at the time of the attack. The attack, then, was deliberately planned as a "decapitation" attack, intended to kill Milošević."[24] By the start of April, the conflict seemed closer to resolution. NATO countries began to deliberate about invading Kosovo with ground units. US President Bill Clinton was reluctant to commit US forces for a ground offensive. At the same time, Finnish and Russian negotiators continued to try to persuade Milošević to back down. Faced with little alternative, Milošević accepted the conditions offered by a Finnish-Russian mediation team and agreed to a military presence within Kosovo headed by the United Nations, but incorporating NATO troops. On June 12, after Milošević accepted the conditions, KFOR began entering Kosovo. KFOR, a NATO force, had a mission that was limited to peacekeeping.[25] The force was based on the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps headquarters, commanded by Lieutenant General Mike Jackson of the British Army and consisted of British forces, a German Army brigade and Italian Army, Spanish Army and United States Army brigades. The US contribution, the initial entry force, consisted of forces from the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment; the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from; the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment and Echo Troop, 4th Cavalry Regiment. The initial US forces established their area of operation around the towns of Uroševac, the future Camp Bondsteel, and Gnjilane, at Camp Monteith, and spent four months in the southeast of Kosovo. [edit] Aircraft Canopy of F-117 shot down by the Yugoslav Air Force on March 27, 1999, near the village of Buđanovci, Serbia. An important portion of the war involved combat between the Yugoslav Air Force and the opposing air forces. United States Air Force F-15s and F-16s flying mainly from Italian air force bases attacked the defending Yugoslav fighters; mainly MiG-29s, which were in bad shape, due to lack of spare parts and maintenance. Other NATO forces also contributed to the air war. Dogfights/incidents of the 1999 Kosovo War:
[edit] NATO forces[edit] Aviation
The main element of the operation was the air forces of NATO. The French Navy and Air Force operated the Super Etendard and the Mirage 2000. The Italian Air Force operated with 34 Tornado, 12 F-104, 12 AMX, 2 B-707, the Italian Navy operated with Harrier II. The British Royal Air Force operated the Harrier GR7 and Tornado ground attack jets as well as an array of support aircraft. Belgian, Danish, Dutch and Turkish Air Forces operated F-16s. The Spanish Air Force deployed F-18s. The Canadian Air Force deployed a total of 18 CF-18s, enabling them to be responsible for 10% of all bombs dropped in the operation. The fighters were armed with both guided and unguided "dumb" munitions, including the Paveway series of laser-guided bombs. The bombing regiment marked the first time the German Luftwaffe actively participated in combat operations since the end of World War II. The American B-2 Spirit stealth bomber also saw its first combat. Depleted Uranium-238 ammunition, fired in FR Yugoslavia in 1999. On May 20 an F-16 jet fighter crashed in the village of Gradiste, Croatia 17 km southwest of Vinkovci on at 03:35 local time (map). The incident was observed by a number of local residents, who were woken up by a loud explosion and observed a fireball in the sky and a parachute. The crash site was heavily patrolled by police and several small clashes took place between the police and curious villagers. On May 28 another American F-16 fighter/bomber was shot down over Kosovo. The aircraft crashed in central Macedonia at 13:45 local time. The pilot of the aircraft was rushed by a rescue helicopter to a hospital in Skopje. The pilot had serious injuries to his head and extremities. Two more wounded American pilots were recovering in the Skopje hospital. An amateur photographer managed to get a shot of the crash site before the remains of the F-16 were retrieved by NATO troops. This incident was reported by Macedonian "Evening News" newspaper. One heavily damaged USAF F-15 landed at Sarajevo airport on March 25, 1999. June 13 One damaged USAF F-15 fighter jet arrived at Aviano air base (Italy) on June 13, 1999 at about 20:00 local time. Following landing, the aircraft was surrounded by ambulances and fire trucks. [edit] SpaceOperation Allied Force incorporated the first large-scale use of satellites as a direct method of weapon guidance. The collective bombing was the first combat use of the Joint Direct Attack Munition JDAM kit, which uses an inertial-guidance and GPS-guided tail fin to increase the accuracy of conventional gravity munitions up to 95%. The JDAM kits were outfitted on the B-2s. The AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) had been previously used in Operation Southern Watch earlier in 1999. [edit]NATO naval forces operated in the Adriatic Sea. The British Royal Navy sent a substantial task force that included the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, which operated Sea Harrier FA2 fighter jets. The RN also deployed destroyers and frigates, and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) provided support vessels, including the aviation training/primary casualty receiving ship RFA Argus. It was the first time the RN used cruise missiles in combat, operated from the nuclear fleet submarine HMS Splendid. The Italian Navy provided a naval task force that included the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, a frigate (Maestrale) and a submarine (Sauro class). The United States Navy provided a naval task force that included the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge. The French Navy provided the aircraft carrier Foch and escorts. The German Navy–Bremen class frigate Rheinland-Pfalz (F209) and the Oker-fleet service ship (Oste class fleet service ship) also participated in the naval operations. [edit] ArmyU.S. ground forces included a battalion from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. The unit was deployed in March 1999 to Albania in support of the bombing campaign where the battalion secured the Tirana airfield, Apache helicopter refueling sites, established a forward-operating base to prepare for Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) strikes and offensive ground operations, and deployed a small team with a AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar system to the Albania/Kosovo border where it acquired targets for allied/NATO air strikes. Immediately after the bombing campaign, the battalion was refitted back at Tirana airfield and issued orders to move into Kosovo as the initial entry force in support of Operation Joint Guardian. Task Force Hawk was also deployed. [edit] Aftermath[edit] Civilian casualtiesHuman Rights Watch "concludes that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the ninety separate incidents in Operation Allied Force". Refugees were among the victims. Almost two thirds (303 to 352) of the total registered civilian deaths occurred in twelve incidents where ten or more civilian deaths were confirmed; but, unofficially there are more then two thousands dead Yugoslavian civilians.[18] [edit] Military casualtiesMilitary casualties on the NATO side were limited. According to official reports, the alliance suffered no fatalities from combat operations. However, on May 5, an American AH-64 Apache crashed and exploded during a night-time mission in Albania.[8] The Yugoslavs claimed they shot it down, but NATO claimed it crashed due to a technical malfunction. It crashed 40 miles from Tirana,[30] killing the two crewmen, Army Chief Warrant Officers David Gibbs and Kevin Reichert. A study of the campaign reports that Serbian air defenses may have fired up to 700 missiles at NATO aircraft, and that the B-1 bomber crews counted at least 20 surface-to-air missiles fired at them during their first 50 missions.[31] Operation Allied Force inflicted less damage on the Yugoslav military than originally thought due to the use of camouflage. Other misdirection techniques were used to disguise military targets. It was only in the later stages of the campaign that strategic targets such as bridges and buildings were attacked in any systematic way, causing significant disruption and economic damage. This stage of the campaign led to controversial incidents, most notably the bombing of the People's Republic of China embassy in Belgrade where three Chinese reporters were killed and twenty injured, which NATO claimed was a mistake. [edit] Political outcomeWhen NATO agreed Kosovo would be politically supervised by the United Nations, and that there would be no independence referendum for three years (the main objective of NATO was to have a vote on independence), the Yugoslav government agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosovo, under strong diplomatic initiative from Russia, and the bombing suspended on June 10. The war ended June 11, and Russian paratroopers seized Slatina airport to become the first peacekeeping force in the war zone.[32] As British troops were still massed on the Macedonian border, planning to enter Kosovo at 5 am, the Serbs were hailing the Russian arrival as proof the war was a UN operation, not a NATO operation. After hostilities ended, on June 12 the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne, 2-505th Parachute Infantry Regiment entered war-torn Kosovo as part of Operation Joint Guardian. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević survived the conflict and declared its outcome a major victory for Yugoslavia and Serbia. He was, however, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia along with a number of other senior Serbian and Yugoslav political and military figures. His indictment led to Yugoslavia as a whole being treated as a pariah by much of the international community because Milošević was subject to arrest if he left Yugoslavia. The country's economy was badly affected by the conflict, and a year later, popular disillusionment with the Milošević regime led to his overthrow in October 2000. Thousands were killed during the conflict, and hundreds of thousands more fled from the province to other parts of the country and to the surrounding countries. Most of the Albanian refugees returned home within a few weeks or months. However, much of the non-Albanian population again fled to other parts of Serbia or to protected enclaves within Kosovo. Albanian guerrilla activity spread into other parts of Serbia and to neighbouring Republic of Macedonia, but subsided in 2001. The non-Albanian population has since diminished further following fresh outbreaks of inter-communal conflict and harassment, and veterans of the officially disbanded KLA are threatening renewed violence if their demand for secession is not fulfilled. In December 2002, HM Queen Elizabeth II approved the awarding of the Battle Honour "Kosovo" to squadrons of the RAF that participated in the conflict. These were: Nos 1, 7, 8, 9, 14, 23, 31, 51, 101, and 216 squadrons. Squadrons that are emboldened are authorized to have the battle honour emblazoned on their Colours. [edit] CriticismMain article: Legitimacy of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia Some critics, like Joseph Farah, accused the coalition of leading a war under false pretense of genocide.[33] United States President Bill Clinton, and his administration, were accused of inflating the number of Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbians.[34] Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide."[35] On CBS' Face the Nation Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing... They may have been murdered."[36] Clinton, citing the same figure, spoke of "at least 100,000 (Kosovar Albanians) missing".[37] Later, Clinton said about Serbian elections, "they're going to have to come to grips with what Mr. Milošević ordered in Kosovo... They're going to have to decide whether they support his leadership or not; whether they think it's OK that all those tens of thousands of people were killed..."[38] In the same press conference, Clinton also claimed "NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide."[39] Clinton compared the events of Kosovo to the Holocaust. CNN reported, "Accusing Serbia of 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo similar to the genocide of Jews in World War II, an impassioned President Clinton sought Tuesday to rally public support for his decision to send U.S. forces into combat against Yugoslavia, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely with the breakdown of a diplomatic peace effort."[40] Clinton's State Department also claimed Serbian troops had committed genocide. The New York Times reported, "the Administration said evidence of 'genocide' by Serbian forces was growing to include 'abhorrent and criminal action' on a vast scale. The language was the State Department's strongest yet in denouncing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević."[41] The State Department also gave the highest estimate of dead Albanians. The New York Times reported, "On April 19, the State Department said that up to 500,000 Kosovar Albanians were missing and feared dead."[42] However, five months after the conclusion of NATO bombing, only 2,108 bodies were found, with a total estimate not exceeding eleven thousand.[43] The United Nations Charter does not allow military interventions in other sovereign countries with few exceptions which, in general, need to be decided upon by the United Nations Security Council. The issue was brought before the UNSC by Russia, in a draft resolution which—inter alia—would affirm "that such unilateral use of force constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter". China, Namibia and Russia voted for the resolution, the other members against, thus it failed to pass.[44][45] The absence of Security Council approval as a legal basis for the intervention led some observers to argue that the intervention undermined international law.[citation needed] On April 29, 1999, Yugoslavia filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice at The Hague against ten NATO member countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and USA). The Court did not decide upon the case because it ruled that Yugoslavia was not a member of the UN during the war. By the times of the bombings, 22 members of the Greek Council of State signed a declaration finding NATO guilty for war crimes.[46]
In Western countries, opposition to NATO's intervention was mainly from conservatives and libertarians on the right, and from most of the far left. The United States was a major exception to this trend, perhaps because of lingering distrust for President Clinton following his impeachment the preceding winter, and the United States House of Representatives voted against the President's policy in a 213–213 tie. The anti-Clinton majority in the House succeeded in little more than demonstrating its impotence in foreign policy issues, as bombing continued regardless. In United Kingdom, the war was opposed by many prominent conservative figures including former UK Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, and journalists Peter Hitchens and Simon Heffer. Criticism has also come from the pro-Serb chairman of the BNP, Nick Griffin. Opposition on the left was confined to The Morning Star newspaper and left-wing MPs like Tony Benn and Alan Simpson. However, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), a Leninist splinter-group, backed the Kosovo Liberation Army (while opposing NATO's intervention, seeing it as American-led imperialist opportunism) and supported the complete secession of Kosovo from Serbia. [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: Conflicts in 1999 | Kosovo War | Wars involving the Balkans | Wars involving the United States | Wars involving Belgium | Wars involving Denmark | Wars involving France | Wars involving Germany | Wars involving Italy | Wars involving the Netherlands | Wars involving Spain | Wars involving Turkey | Wars involving the United Kingdom | 1999 in Yugoslavia | Military operations involving NATO | Aerial bombing operations and battles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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