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05-31-2009, 05:54 PM
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Savine Vode Bus Attack: NATO Strike Kills 17 Near Pec, Kosovo, May 3, 1999
At about midday on Monday, May 3, 1999, a NATO aircraft hit a scheduled Djakovica Prevoz bus and at least one car at Savine Vode, a mountain pass on the Pec to Rozaje road in western Kosovo. The bus, carrying many women and children, caught fire. Human Rights Watch put the toll at 17 killed and 44 injured, including 43 casualties transported to the hospital in Pec; Serbian sources reported 20 dead and 43 wounded. NATO denied responsibility at the time. Its spokesman Jamie Shea said there was no evidence that NATO aircraft had struck the bus, although he acknowledged that NATO aircraft were operating in the area, while one official suggested it may have been caught in fighting between Serbian forces and the KLA. Human Rights Watch nonetheless included the strike in its civilian-death record for the air campaign, citing reports that cluster bombs were used and that fragments recovered at the site were American. The Humanitarian Law Center also records twelve Yugoslav army and police personnel killed at Savine Vode that day. No bus victim was ever publicly named.
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