The city of Nish (south-eastern from Belgrade) was attacked Friday morning. NATO officials said that they targeted a military airstrip, but hit civilian targets by mistake. A BLOODY LIE! The very center of Nish, which is situated AT LEAST 7 kms from the airport, was bombed in the middle of the day, using cluster bombs.
Bombs hit only civilian targets - city market and hospital. At least 20 people were killed on the spot, more than 50 injured. Hospital building is ruined, medics are injured, many unexploded cluster bombs are still scattered across the city... I spoke to my good friend from Nish some 40 minutes after the strike and he was so shocked he could not speak more than 5 minutes... He said that bombs were falling some 200 meters from his house... "I don't know what to say - it was simply terrible! I don't have words to explain that. I never thought I will experience such a massacre in my city", he said.
...And NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea, said that "one bomb went astray". So, Nish aftermath goes like this: 20 dead for now, more than 50 wounded, more than 20 cars burned, more than 300 apartments destroyed, hospital and city market badly damaged, many unexploded bombs still scattered across the city...
Want some pictures from Nish?
http://www.alert.org.yu/mirrors/
beograd.com/damage/nis7Maj/index.html After the massacre in Nish, NATO turned to Belgrade. Around 22 hrs the attack started. First target was the building of Chinese embassy. It suffered two direct hits. More than 30 Chinese citizens were in the building at the moment of explosion. Rescue teams are still searching the ruins and so far, it is confirmed that one Chinese citizen was killed in that attack and 26 are wounded. Half hour later, Russian embassy was evacuated...
After the strike on the embassy, NATO hit another pure civilian target, Hotel "Yugoslavia". Left part of the hotel is totally devastated. Hotel kitchen is destroyed and right part of the hotel (with guest rooms) suffered minor damage. According to first reports, in that attack nobody was hurt.
There are no military targets in a circle of at least 5 kms around the buildings of Chinese embassy and Hotel "Yugoslavia". I heard that a reporter of MSNBC said that Chinese embassy is situated near the "legitimate military targets in the center of Belgrade" (and he showed that on a city map). He obviously doesn't know that Chinese embassy was moved from the Belgrade's center some 8 years ago, to a new location, at least 6 kms far away...
The only military target hit in Belgrade last night was Army HQ. It was the same building already hit last week. It is obvious that the building was completely empty and out of order...
I just wonder how will NATO explain this barbaric acts of bombing civilian targets in Belgrade? It was surely not a mistake, since the hits on embassy and hotel were precise and done with at least two rockets...
As NATO officials would put it - it is most probable that: "he dropped the bombs in good faith, like you would expect from a trained pilot of a democratic country".
Greetings,
Slobodan Markovic