Peacekeepers Leave Last U.N. ‘Safe Area’

Nearly 100 peacekeepers left the last U.N. “safe area” in eastern Bosnia on Friday, ending their mission on a jarring note - an armed clash that left two Bosnian intruders dead.

The United Nations reported that a skirmish broke out after government soldiers attacked British peacekeepers in the “safe area,” Gorazde. The British killed two of the intruders without sustaining casualties themselves.

A U.N. spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said the incident involving an estimated 30 soldiers was “an act of banditry.” The United Nations lodged a protest to the Bosnian government in Sarajevo.

But a late night report by the London-based Press Association quoted the British as saying that only four or five intruders were involved, with perhaps only one of them armed and some in civilian clothes. A British Defense Ministry spokesman in London said they were probably “local hoods” out to steal gasoline.