Allies Pound Serbs With Air Attacks for 3rd Day : Bosnia: Clinton calls the U.S.-dominated campaign to free Sarajevo the ‘right response’ to rebel ‘savagery.’

NAPLES, Italy — For a third consecutive day, NATO warplanes struck at rebel Serb targets in Bosnia-Herzegovina today, and allied commanders vowed to continue air attacks until the besieged capital of Sarajevo is safe.

As his delegates pursued shuttle diplomacy between Balkan capitals, President Clinton said Thursday that the U.S.-dominated air and artillery campaign against Serbian separatists is “the right response to the savagery in Sarajevo.”

“The NATO campaign will make clear to the Bosnian Serbs that they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by continuing to attack Sarajevo and other ‘safe areas’ and by continuing to slaughter innocent civilians,” Clinton said. “NATO is delivering that message loud and clear.”

Late Thursday, U.N. officials reported sightings of Bosnian Serb tanks moving away from the Bosnian capital, a designated safe area where Serbian shelling has killed thousands of civilians in the past 40 months of siege. But it was unclear if the movement represented a withdrawal or hiding of heavy weapons.

Allied officials inspected responses from Bosnian Serb leaders in search of signs of compliance. But the signals were mixed.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic promised in a letter to U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi to stop firing at safe areas. But in the same breath, he warned that further air strikes would hasten “our preparations for a long-term conflict that the international community has no hope of winning.”

Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Naples said more strikes were carried out Thursday and early today, but no details were offered.

Declaring the start of NATO’s biggest combat mission “very successful,” the alliance’s commander of military forces in Southern Europe nevertheless admitted that poor visibility in the Balkans had hampered his force’s effectiveness.

“We’ve had some weather problems. We obviously missed some targets. But overall, I believe we’re being very successful in the prosecution of these operations,” Adm. Leighton Smith said Thursday at the first detailed briefing since the attacks began early Wednesday. “The operation continues.”

He said that 90 targets were attacked and that 300 NATO sorties hobbled the Serbs’ air defenses.

While initial NATO assaults concentrated on Serb antiaircraft installations, command centers, communications points and ammunition dumps, Smith indicated that much of the operation early Thursday was devoted to searching for the two-person crew of a French Mirage 2000 ground-attack aircraft downed by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile late Wednesday.

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The two airmen parachuted from the burning jet, but their fate was unknown.

“We are exerting every possible effort for the rescue of the French pilots who ejected yesterday,” Smith said.

U.N. officials said the Bosnian Serbs fired 24 surface-to-air missiles at NATO aircraft in the first 24 hours of the operation.

Bosnian Serb television Thursday showed pictures of five European Union monitors who the Serbs earlier claimed had been killed in NATO raids. Spanish officials had said they believed the monitors, including three Spaniards, had been executed by the Serbs. Shown alive in Serbian television footage, the men were reportedly released, but their whereabouts remained unclear late Thursday.

In his presentation, Smith showed videotapes of several attacks, including a direct hit on a Bosnian Serb military command- and operations-control building near Jahorina, south of Sarajevo, and a similar bull’s-eye on the loading and storage areas of a major ammunition plant at Vogosca, north of the Bosnian capital. A series of explosions and fires followed that attack. There was no information available on casualties.

Other targets included Bosnian Serb radar installations near the safe areas of Tuzla and Gorazde, two supply depots in the Serbs’ self-styled capital, Pale, and at least one other ammunition dump.

Smith was effusive in his praise of cooperation between NATO and the United Nations. He also cited the cooperative efforts of the U.N. commander in the Balkans, French Lt. Gen. Bernard Janvier. Under a command structure agreed to last month that cuts out U.N. civilians such as Akashi, Smith and Janvier carry joint responsibility for launching military operations. “Gen. Janvier and I are in constant contact,” Smith said. “Our working relationship is sound and, in fact, I believe responsible for the success we have enjoyed.”

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In both tone and content, Smith’s remarks underscored that, despite their previous differences, NATO and the United Nations can work together. Any long-term successful cooperative effort between the two organizations would be extremely important for the future of NATO, still searching for its role in the post-Cold War order.

Consistent U.N. reluctance to sanction the use of sustained NATO air power to enforce its own resolutions in the Balkans had left alliance advocates dispirited and the future of NATO itself clouded by the belief that one of its key roles in a new world order might not be possible.

In his remarks, Smith stressed that any decision to end the bombing and artillery attacks will be made with Janvier. He said the two will decide when the artillery threat to Sarajevo had ended, but added: “It will be principally up to the Bosnian Serbs to determine when operations should cease, if they can meet [our] objective,” Smith said.

The attacks are being carried out to enforce a 2-year-old U.N. resolution that created a series of safe areas and weapons exclusion zones in Bosnia, where civilians could escape the fighting.

While Sarajevo was one such designated area, Bosnian Serbs have shelled the city with relative impunity until Monday, when a mortar killed 37 people, triggering the outrage that brought pressure for the NATO raids.

Briefing reporters, Smith said the allied planes had attacked targets from a list that he and Janvier had agreed on. He said junior commanders further refined the targets through late Tuesday, attempting to select installations where there would be the least danger of civilian casualties.

According to NATO documents, the attacks began around midnight Tuesday with 73 aircraft launched from bases throughout Italy and from the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Adriatic Sea. Before the day was over, Dutch, Spanish, French, British and U.S. aircraft had flown missions.

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Meanwhile, in Los Angeles on Thursday, two leaders of the Muslim community praised NATO’s action, urging the United States and the United Nations to continue using force to pressure the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table and ultimately to lift the arms embargo in the Balkans, especially against the Muslim-led but secular Bosnian government.

Salam Marayati and Maher Hathout of the Muslim Public Affairs Council noted, however, that NATO’s bombing came too late--and might turn out to be too little.

“Had this happened three years ago, probably hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved,” Hathout said at a morning news conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California.

Marshall reported from Naples and Wilkinson from Zagreb, Croatia. Times staff writers Stanley Meisler in Washington and Jody Wilgoren in Los Angeles contributed to this report.