Serbs Halt Aid Convoys As Fighting Escalates

An upsurge in fighting Friday in the northwest poked another hole in a tattered truce, and Serbs shut down aid convoys out of Sarajevo in response to the government’s arrest of a Serb.

The Serb decision to halt the aid convoys prompted the United Nations to suspend the aid airlift to Sarajevo as of today, because of limited storage space at the airport.

The fighting in the northwestern Bihac pocket was among the most serious violations of the truce that took effect Jan. 1. Government troops and Bosnian Serbs were fighting over a plateau overlooking Bihac town, a U.N.-declared “safe area” where civilians are supposed to be under U.N. protection.