Online NewsHour: F-117A downed in Yugoslavia -- March 28, 1999



	THREE AMERICAN SOLDIER MISSING

March 31, 1999
		Pentagon and NATO officials tonight confirmed that three US Army personnel on patrol in Macedonia came under attack by an unknown force and are now missing.

Strikes in Yugoslavia Coverage

March 24, 1999:
Secretary Albright discusses the air strikes.

March 23, 1999:
What does NATO hope to achieve through air strikes?

March 22, 1999:
The Yugoslavian ambassador to the U.N. discusses growing tension.

NATO

US State Department

map The soldiers were driving along a civilian road when "they received small arms fire and said they were surrounded," a NATO statement issued late Wednesday read. "No more was heard from the patrol."

US forces, joined by British, French and Italian allies, immediately launched a search and rescue mission to locate the soldiers. Although NATO declined to say who might have been behind the attack, US officials indicated they believe Serb Army, paramilitary units or special police forces were responsible.

"We believe they have possibly been abducted," said Col. Richard Bridges, a Pentagon spokesman. "Right now there's a ... concentrated ground search."

The incident occurred at approximately 2:30pm local time or 8:30am EST. The three soldiers had been on a routine daytime reconnaissance mission in the Kumanovo area, a town three miles from the Yugoslav border.

Although the search began immediately after the last radio report from the soldiers, NATO forces have been unable to humvee locate either the soldiers or their Humvee in which they had been traveling.

US officials said they would continue to scour the region for the three.

"The search will continue until we find them or until we have some idea where they are," Bridges said. "It's pretty rough out there."

Although some officials expressed concern that the soldiers may have been taken into Yugoslavia, the Defense Department said they would only search within Macedonia.

"They're not going to cross the border," Bridges said.

The soldiers, members of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, were part of garrison guarding the Yugoslav-Macedonia border during the ongoing NATO airstrikes against the Serb military in Yugoslavia.

The search and rescue operation was the second launched in less than a week. The first successfully located and rescued a downed F-117A stealth fighter pilot from within Yugoslavia.