-Caveat Lector-
"In a[n admitted] handful of other high-profile mistakes, errant NATO
weapons have killed or harmed civilians. The latest example was Friday, when
cluster bombs struck a hospital Nis, killing more than a dozen people.".
Targeting To Blame in Embassy Hit
By ANNE GEARAN
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unlike previous mistakes in the NATO bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia when bombs or missiles misfired or landed in the wrong
spot, the precision-guided weapon that hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade
apparently did just what it was told.
The problem, NATO officials admit, is that the alliance thought its warplanes
were hitting a different building. The error suggests a problem with
targeting, or the original identification of what to hit, although NATO
officials would not specifically say so.
The NATO plane that hit the embassy building Friday night was supposed to
bomb a Yugoslav government building called the federal Directorate of Supply
and Procurement, NATO and Pentagon spokesmen said Saturday.
The hit from an unspecified precision weapon reportedly killed four people.
It came during NATO's most concentrated onslaught on the Yugoslav capital
since launch of the first of approximately 17,000 air strikes seven weeks
ago.
In a handful of other high-profile mistakes, errant NATO weapons have killed
or harmed civilians. The latest example was earlier Friday, when cluster
bombs accidentally struck a residential neighborhood and hospital grounds in
the Yugoslav city of Nis, killing more than a dozen people.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said he ``would not challenge'' the premise
that in the instance of the embassy, the weapon operated correctly.
NATO's military spokesman, German Gen. Walter Jertz, said that through ``an
error in the process,'' the embassy building got mixed up with the
directorate building.
Military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the fault likely
lies with NATO military planners in Brussels rather than with the pilot of
the plane that dropped the bomb.
``You're given a set of coordinates. If the coordinates are for the wrong
building, the pilot is not going to know,'' one official said.
NATO is still investigating the mishap, and Bacon said the alliance would
eventually provide a fuller explanation.
But alliance and Pentagon officials have said repeatedly the identification
and pursuit of targets is a painstaking process involving common sense as
well as a variety of high-tech intelligence and reconnaissance tools.
In the case of fixed targets, such as buildings, decisions about what to hit
and when are typically made far in advance. The choice is part political and
part military, and in the case of the NATO campaign involves representatives
of numerous countries.
Satellite imagery, photos from reconnaissance planes, intercepted enemy
documents or conversations, publicly available documents such as maps and
information from people on the ground all play a role, although NATO
officials will not discuss their methods in detail.
Once a target is picked, the team of pilots, navigators and support crews
spend hours preparing for flight. Pilots get a ``target folder'' from
planners ahead of the mission, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Wald, a
strategic planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former fighter pilot.
Target identification and pilot preparation would have been extensive in this
case, because of the military importance of the intended target and because
Belgrade is heavily defended by Serb forces, Wald said at a briefing for
reporters.
``The way targeting works ... the higher the threat, the more valued the
target, the more time you would study it. The more time you have to study it,
the better,'' Wald said.
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