British soldier killed as Serbs attack UN convoy

A BRITISH soldier was killed near Sarajevo yesterday when Bosnian Serb forces ambushed a British United Nations convoy on Mount Igman, two miles outside the city.

The soldier, who was apparently shot in the chest, was taken to hospital in Sarajevo by Bosnian officials but died last night of his injuries. Another British soldier and a Bosnian civilian were also hurt in the attack, which came hours after the Bosnian Serbs ordered the road over Igman closed to commercial traffic.

The Bosnian Serbs later apologised for the attack, and claimed they mistook the British trucks for a Bosnian supply convoy. But Major Dacre Holloway, a UN spokesman in Sarajevo, said last night: 'There's no way you can mistake it.

'They are lorries painted white with 'UN' written on them. There is no chance of mistaking it.'

Nato aircraft flew over the stricken vehicles, Major Holloway said, but the UN did not request air strikes against the Serbs. 'We repositioned some aircraft over there but there was no decision made to even start the process of activating close air support.'

The UN in Sarajevo did not identify the dead soldier, who is the seventh Briton to have died in the Bosnian conflict. The latest victim was travelling in a supply convoy bound for Gorazde, where soldiers of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment are deployed.

Major Holloway said the convoy was first shot at on the narrow mountain road, and then came under 'sustained' fire. The Serbs concentrated their fire on a diesel tanker which burst into flames; the fire spread to several other vehicles, including one belonging to Bosnian forces who came to help.

Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Rose, the UN commander in Bosnia, said the Serbs had opened fire because they mistook the white trucks and jeeps for civilian vehicles. 'I'm afraid we're in a period when there's a lot of tension and opportunity for misunderstanding,' he added. 'As soon as we radioed them they (the Serbs) stopped firing.'

Tension has risen in Sarajevo over the past week, as diplomats from Russia and the West meet to consider what action to take over the apparent Serb rejection of the Geneva peace plan.

Reacting to the attack on the British UN convoy and what he called 'a pattern of Bosnian Serb provocation', the US Defence Secretary, William Perry, warned of fresh retaliatory Nato air strikes to protect safe zones for civilians - and, if all else failed, a lifting of the UN arms embargo in Bosnia. He pledged that Washington would seek 'strict implementation' of steps to safeguard existing exclusion zones.

After listing Bosnian Serb 'provocations', including heavy weapons around Gorazde and renewed sniper attacks on civilians in Sarajevo, Mr Perry warned that allied patience had worn thin. 'There will be consequences if the Bosnian Serbs continue to reject the peace proposals.'

Peace barter, page 11