September 6, 1995 -- 5:30 AM EDT
(CNN) -- NATO airstrikes against Serb targets in Bosnia- Herzegovina resumed Wednesday following a pause during bad weather, NATO southern commander Adm. Leighton Smith announced at his headquarters in Naples, Italy. Smith said early reports indicate the strikes on military targets were successful. And he said, "We will continue these strike operations for the foreseeable future."
The United Nations and NATO see few signs of Bosnian Serb compliance with demands to move its heavy weapons away from the 12 1/2 mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Tuesday the allies believe the Serbs have moved some of the weapons only within the zone.
The United Nations and NATO have imposed three major demands on the Bosnian Serbs: Stop the shelling of Sarajevo, remove heavy weapons from the exclusion zone, and allow free movement of United Nations and aid officials on the ground and at the Sarajevo airport.
Despite Smith's claim of success against Serb positions, it's not as much as military planners had hoped. "We have laid out a certain number of targets, and the weather impeded our progress down that target list, so we have not struck as many targets as I would like to have struck," the admiral said. "We have plenty of work left to do."
The Bosnian Serb military leader, however, seems undeterred. "The more you bomb us the stronger we are," Gen. Ratko Mladic said in an interview with the Reuter news agency. "Since we are on our soil, we will win."
But sources told CNN that Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic are trying to oust Bosnian Serb military boss Ratko Mladic. Sources who are aware of the depth of the power struggle were unable to assess whether such a move could succeed.
A key Clinton administration official who is guiding Bosnia policy said the administration is convinced that Mladic is in charge of the heavy weapons in the exclusion zone. "We are now ready to take the oxymoron out of the term 'safe area' and will use the blunt but tough instrument of airstrikes to do everything we can to protect the safe havens," the official said.
The State Department confirms plans for initial talks over a U.S.-sponsored peace plan are set for Friday in Geneva. Those planning to participate include the foreign ministers of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia and members of the Contact Group, which is composed of the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Britain. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke is leading the U.S. effort. He went to Croatia Wednesday to brief President Franjo Tudjman on the progress of negotiations.
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