War in the Balkans: Casualties - First US troops killed on Apache training mission
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Your support makes all the difference.NATO STILL insisted yesterday that the alliance was winning the war, even as it confirmed that an Apache helicopter exploded in flames during training in Albania, killing two American crewmen.
The loss of a second Apache before any of the original 24 tank-busters (each costing pounds 10m), drafted in with great fanfare two weeks ago, had been deployed in action, was embarrassing for the alliance, coming hours before President Bill Clinton's arrival in Europe.
The crewmen were the first American deaths in the six- week Nato air campaign.
Told about the crash while he was on his way to Nato headquarters in Brussels, Mr Clinton lamented the loss of "two brave Americans". The Pentagon said there was no indication the helicopter came under fire.
The crew was on a night training mission in remote mountain terrain when the helicopter burst into flames. At the airfield near Tirana where the helicopters are based, Lieutenant-Colonel Garrie Dornan, spokesman for the US force that includes the Apaches, said there was a fireball, adding that ammunition on board had exploded.
The first Apache crashed last month as Nato prepared to put the helicopters into combat against Serb units in Kosovo. The crew of that aircraft escaped with cuts and bruises.
The latest crash was reported as Nato announced that its jets had hit targets in central Serbia, pounding military airports, power lines and oil depots. After briefing President Clinton on his visit to Nato headquarters, General Wesley Clark, the supreme allied commander and the man in charge of Operation Allied Force, said that strikes had increased during Tuesday and yesterday despite poor weather, hitting 10 armoured concentrations, 11 artillery sites, three command posts and 13 groups of trucks. General Clark said Serb forces no longer had the ability to pursue the same ruthless "ethnic cleansing" favoured by Yugoslavia's leaders.
Much of Belgrade was without power for a third day after Nato strikes hit several main power plants.
The Ministry of Defence last night refused to comment on a French report that a soldier from the SAS was lost behind Yugoslav lines in Kosovo about 10 days ago. TTU-Europe, aweekly newsletter specialising in defence issues, gave no details of the mission or what happened to the soldier. It also claimed that British and American special forces first entered Kosovo five days before the start of air strikes.
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