Grdelica train bombing

Grdelica train bombing
Part of the Kosovo War
Railway bridge and monument to victims
TypeMissile attack
Location
Near Grdelica, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia

42°52′37″N 22°05′09″E / 42.87697°N 22.085953°E / 42.87697; 22.085953
TargetBridge
Date12 April 1999
Executed by NATO
Casualties20 killed or missing according to HRW[1]
50 killed according to Tanjug[1]
55 killed according to Serbian government[2]

The Grdelica train bombing occurred on 12 April 1999, when two missiles fired by a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fighter bomber hit a passenger train while it was passing across a railway bridge over the Južna Morava river in the Grdelica gorge, some 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of Belgrade, Serbia. At least 20 civilian passengers were killed or declared missing. Estimates of the total death toll run as high as 60.[1] It is considered the deadliest rail disaster in Serbian history.[3][4]

The bombing occurred during Operation Allied Force, a NATO operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) aimed at forcing the FRY government to end the repression of Albanians in Kosovo.[5] The campaign had begun by attacking mainly military targets, but by mid-April the emphasis had changed to strategic and economic targets such as transport links, particularly major bridges.

  1. ^ a b c "Human Rights Watch: Kosovo: Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign". 1 February 2000. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  2. ^ "The Irish Times: A long litany of NATO mistakes hits a new low". The Irish Times. 10 May 1999. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Novosti: Grdelica: Obeleženo 15 godina od raketiranja putničkog voza" [News: "Grdelica: Marked 15 years since the rocketing of a passenger train"] (in Serbian). 12 April 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  4. ^ "PTC: Годишњица бомбардовања моста у Грделици" [PTC: Anniversary of the bombing of the bridge in Grdelica]. РТС (in Serbian). 12 April 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  5. ^ "NATO & Kosovo: Historical Overview". NATO. Retrieved 15 January 2012.

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