U.S. Forces Relinquish Bridge To Serbs

Six days after U.S. troops came under attack at a strategic bridge here, the American forces quietly withdrew from the site and handed it over to Bosnian Serb police.

On Thursday, a large Bosnian Serb flag hung at one end of the bridge in place of an American one, following the overnight withdrawal of a U.S. Army task force and the dismantling of a checkpoint that had controlled the bridge since NATO peacekeepers first deployed here 21 months ago.

The bridge spans the Sava River between Brcko in the Bosnian Serb half of Bosnia-Herzegovina and, at the other end, Croatia. It was the second time in two days that U.S. NATO forces relinquished control of a strategic installation to Bosnian Serbs, whose leaders have been blocking elements of the U.S.-brokered peace accords that ended the war.

On Tuesday, U.S. troops handed a key television transmitter back to Bosnian Serb forces who, like the police in Brcko, are loyal to indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. The television had been used to broadcast virulent anti-West rhetoric, comparing NATO troops to Nazi occupiers, but the Serbs regained the transmitter when they promised to clean up their language.

International officials said surrendering the bridge was not a concession to the Serbs but was necessary to better protect American troops stationed near Brcko.

Tensions have been high since Aug. 28, when angry Bosnian Serb mobs attacked U.S. soldiers in a day of rioting that left two Americans and several Bosnian Serb civilians wounded. Faced with a new, unspecified threat, military planners decided to reduce the exposure of the American patrols who manned the bridge and abandon the site, officials said.