14
World
Reports
♦Grenade kills seven chil
dren in Brazzaville
Brazzaville, Congo (AP) A
grenade launched onto a high
school soccer field killing seven
children and injuring 13 others in
a suburb of the capital of the Re
public of Congo, police said Sun
day.
A police statement said sev
eral seriously injured children,
all aged 10 to 15, had to have arms
or legs amputated after an un
known attacker fired a grenade
launcher into a group playing on
the field Saturday afternoon.
Accidental explosions of
hand grenades, left exposed dur
ing recent fighting in the capital
between government troops and
residents trying to oust President
Denis Sassou-Nguesso, fre
quently injure civilians in
Brazzaville.
But police said the assailant
Saturday intentionally targeted
the children. An investigation was
underway to find more informa
tion about the attack.
♦Teen-ager charged with
murder
, Sandpoint, Idaho (AP) A
Priest River teen-ager has been
charged with first-degree mur
der in the shooting death of an
other teen.
' Authorities said Randy
Joshua Reynolds, 18, died early
Saturday morning of a gunshot
wound to the chest after a fight
with Joshua Patrick McMurphy,
17.
According to a clerk at the
convenience store where the
shooting occurred, McMurphy
shot Reynolds once in the heart
after the two exchanged words in
the parking lot.
Valdez said although
McMurphy claims to be a mem
ber of the Priest River Crips and
had gang regalia with him, he does
not believe the shooting was gang
related.
McMurphy, a student at
Priest River Lamanna High
School, was ordered held without
bond, pending an appearance in
Magistrate Court on Monday.
♦ Mugabe says 1,200 die
each week from AIDS in
Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe (AP)
More than 1,200 Zimbabweans
are dying each week from AIDS,
President Robert Mugabe said
Sunday, acknowledging for the
first time the enormity of an epi
demic whose existence the gov
ernment had previously under
played.
Allied groiindforce in Balkans expanding
By Robert Burns
AP MILITARY WRITER
Washington (AP) As hun
dreds more aircraft join NATO's
air campaign, a less-noticed ar
ray of allied ground forces is as
sembling on the southern rim of
Yugoslavia.
Some were brought to the
region for humanitarian
work and others for po
tential deployment as
peacekeepers. But they
could serve as the
nucleus of an invasion
force if the leaders of
NATO reverse them
selves and decide that
only an invasion will
achieve their aims
against Yugoslav Presi
dent Slobodan Milosevic.
The possible de
ployment of combat
troops was discussed on
both sides of the Atlan
tic Sunday.
Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright re
peated the U.S. position
that air power will
achieve NATO's pur
poses and NATO Secre
tary General Javier
Solana said the allies
have no plans to autho
rize an invasion.
But, in a significant addition
to the ongoing ground troop dia
logue, he added that "if the mo
ment comes when it is necessary"
to invade Yugoslavia, "I'm sure
the countries that belong to NATO
will be ready to do it."
Britain's foreign secretary,
Robin Cook, stressed it would
take two to three months to pre
pare an invasion, if one were or
dered. Military experts agree.
Allied ground forces arriving
Israeli jets hit South Lebanon
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
Nabatiyeh, Lebanon (AP) Is
raeli warplanes blasted sus
pected guerrilla hideouts in
southern Lebanon on Sunday,
shortly after Hezbollah fighters
attacked two Israeli outposts
near the border, Lebanese secu
rity officials said.
Two Israeli fighter jets fired
a number of missiles at a valley
between the Shiite Muslim vil
lages of Jebal al-Botom and
Zibqine, nine miles southeast of
the coastal city of Tyre, said the
officials, who spoke on customary
condition of anonymity.
There was no word on casu
alties from the airstrike, the
fourth this week by Israeli jets on
World
in the Balkans include some of
the keys to ground combat, in
cluding U.S. Army Bradley infan
try carriers and Apache attack
helicopters, and British battle
tanks.
About 12,000 NATO troops
are in Macedonia, including some
600 Americans. In neighboring
Albania about 2,000 of a planned
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BRIAN HEAGNEY
force of 8,000 allied troops are
preparing for a humanitarian re
lief effort. There also are several
thousand U.S. troops in Bosnia as
part of a NATO-led peacekeeping
force.
The Albania group includes
the vanguard of a U.S. Army con
tingent, eventually to total 3.000
or more soldiers, that will oper
ate two battalions of Apache at
tack helicopters and land-based
missiles.
the area.
There was no immediate
comment from Israel.
The area is believed to be
used by Hezbollah guerrillas to
launch attacks against Israeli
troops and allied Lebanese mili
tiamen in Israel's self-styled se
curity zone in southern Lebanon.
In a statement issued in
Sidon, the provincial capital of
south Lebanon, Hezbollah said its
guerrillas earlier fired at two Is
raeli outposts near the Lebanese-
Israeli border, scoring "direct
hits."
The exchanges occurred af
ter a Lebanese civilian was in
jured in an Israeli bombardment
of a village in southern Lebanon.
Jawad Mohammed Moussa,
THE GUILFORDIAN
APRIL 23. 1 999
The Apache force is expected
to begin operating soon against
Serb armored forces in Kosovo.
By the time ground forces
can be assembled in large-enough
numbers to take on an invasion,
the Serbs are likely to have com
pleted their campaign of "ethnic
cleansing," the very acts of vio
lence NATO is striving to stop.
A NATO assess
ment last summer con
cluded that it would take
about 200,000 allied
group troops to conquer
Kosovo.
The allies hope re
lentless bombing ulti
mately will force
Milosevic to accept a
Kosovo peace deal that
includes stationing inter
national peacekeepers in
Kosovo.
NATO's Solana de
nied a British newspaper
report that the alliance
is preparing for a late-
May invasion of Kosovo.
"At this point, the al
liance has no plans to go
into an invasion," Solana
said on Fox television.
Critics have said it
is a mistake to give
Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic the
assurance he will not
face NATO on the ground.
Milosevic's foreign minister,
Zivadin Jovanovic, asked on NBC
television whether Serb forces
were prepared for a ground war,
said: "Be sure that we can resist
any kind of attacks, any kind of
aggression."
Jovanovic said the United
States and NATO should "draw
lessons" from the "unsuccessful
air raids and aggression" in his
country.
35, whose left foot was amputated
below the knee from a shrapnel
injury in a similar Israeli bom
bardment two years ago, suffered
a fresh wound in the upper part
of that leg, the officials said.
Hezbollah, or the Party of
God, is leading a guerrilla war to
oust 1,500 Israeli soldiers and
2,500 allied Lebanese militiamen
from the occupied zone, which
Israel set up in 1985 to shield its
northern towns from cross-bor
der guerrilla attacks.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Presi
dent Emile Lahoud said Sunday
that Israel was violating a 1996
U.S.-brokered cease-fire by occu
pying the southern village of
Arnoun, five miles southeast of
Nabatiyeh.