Croat Forces Shelling Capital Of Serb Rebels Attacks Come Hours After Failure Of Last-Ditch Talks Sponsored By U.N. Peacekeepers

Croat forces that for days had been spoiling for a fight with breakaway Serbs opened up with a heavy artillery attack early Friday on Knin, the rebels’ rugged self-proclaimed capital.

The bombardment began shortly after 5 a.m. (8 p.m. PDT Thursday), with shells hitting the center of Knin and front lines in the nearby mountains.

The fighting came hours after Croatia called last-ditch peace talks with the rebel Serbs a failure.

U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness said in Zagreb that the artillery attack on Knin was followed by a Croatian tank attack on Serb forces just south of Gospic, about 50 miles northwest of Knin. Serbs allegedly had shelled Gospic over the past three days.

Gospic residents have spent most of the past three days in shelters as Croatian forces have massed in and around the town.

The Croatian attacks appeared to make a mockery of a last-ditch bid by U.N. mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg to get Croatia to respond to the first-ever Serb offer of peaceful reintegration of the lands they have held since a six-month war in 1991.

Stoltenberg was due in Zagreb Friday to urge Croatian leaders to explore the Serbs’ offer, made in talks in Geneva Thursday. But Croatia, which has massed 100,000 troops in advance of the negotiations, seemed in no mood to listen.

By striking at Knin, they have struck at the heart of the Serbs’ rebellion. The Serbs captured about a third of Croatia in a six-month war in 1991 after Croatia seceded from Serb-led Yugoslavia.

Associated Press reporter Julijana Mojsilovic said from Knin early Friday that hills around the town were smoking from the artillery battles between Croats and Serbs.

Parts of the center were also on fire after an initial intense half-hour bombardment, she said.

In that half-hour, between 200 and 300 shells landed in and around Knin, Gunness said.

The Croatian attacks appeared to be a pincer movement from north and east of Knin on the U.N.-patrolled swath of land in southwestern Croatia known as Sector South.

“We deeply regret that Croatia has abandoned the peace process,” Gunness said. “As a peacekeeping force, we bitterly regret that Croatia has chosen the path of war.”

The United Nations has some 12,000 peacekeepers in Croatia under a new mission worked out last spring after Croatian President Franjo Tudjman threatened to kick out the blue helmets and make good on his long-standing threat to regain Serb-held land by force.

Tudjman, who met late Thursday with his leading advisers to discuss the situation, now appears to have decided to try to recapture the rebels’ territory.

He has about 100,000 men - the full battle strength of his army - massed against about 50,000 well-armed Serbs.

In an appeal to the Serbs broadcast about three hours after the fighting began, Tudjman urged them not to take up arms, but to stay at home and await “liberation” by Croatian troops.

“After four years of fruitless negotiations, Croatia was forced to undertake measures to reintegrate its temporarily occupied territories,” Tudjman’s statement said.

He guaranteed an amnesty for any Serbs who lay down their arms - something the rebels are unlikely to do.

Since the end of the 1991 war in an uneasy truce, Croatia has organized and equipped its army well despite a U.N. arms embargo. It has been spoiling for a fight since May, when Croatian troops recaptured the most weakly-defended chunk of Serb-held land, in central Croatia, in a two-day blitz offensive.

The Serbs rocketed Zagreb in retaliation, killing seven people and wounding almost 200.

Tensions have exploded in recent days after Croatia sent thousands of troops pouring across the border into western Bosnia, where they made stunning advances against the rebel Serbs there.

The advances put the Croat forces within shelling range of Knin, which lies just across the Croatian-Bosnian border.

Croatia then deployed tens of thousands of troops southwest and southeast of Zagreb, on the northern tips of Serb-held territory and appeared poised for a multipronged attack.

Croatian radio said early Friday all territory along the Adriatic coast and in central and southern Croatia was now under “red alert,” meaning citizens should seek shelter. .

By deciding to attack now, Tudjman appears confident either of a blitzkrieg victory or that he can keep the Serb-led Yugoslav army from intervening even in a drawn-out fight.

His chief rival, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, is bound to come under pressure from Serbian nationalists to send the well-equipped Yugoslav army to help the rebels. So far, however, he has given no sign that he will do so.

Croatia charges that senior Yugoslav generals already are in Serb-held territory, and that materiel has come in from Serbia.