NATO's airstrikes by themselves are unable to prevent Serb forces from killing Kosovo Albanians, US general Wesley Clark, the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, said yesterday.
"Airpower alone cannot stop paramilitary murder on the ground, and that's what's going on down there," Gen Clark told a press conference at NATO'S Brussels headquarters.
But he did not suggest NATO ground forces should move into Yugoslavia - an option resolutely rejected by Western powers, particularly the United States. "As for what else might be done, I'm going to refer that to the political leaders of NATO and NATO's governments," he said.
Earlier, the general said the alliance's campaign against Yugoslavia has inflicted "substantial damage" to the "Serb war machine".
Of the terror being inflicted on ethnic Albanians in Serbina province, Gen Clark said: "Man does not do this to his fellow man. We are all, in uniform, outraged at the sight of this. This is not something uniformed military soldiers do to civilians."
He also warned Belgrade that it would "be held accountable" for any ill-treatment of the three US servicemen captured by Yugoslavia and shown on Serb television.
"We have seen them, we don't like it," the general said, but added that US military authorities had not been in touch with any Yugoslav officials about the captured men.
NATO secretary-general Mr Javier Solana said the NATO air campaign would continue as long as President Slobodan Milosevic continues his campaign of violence against the Kosovans.
The US regards its three captured soldiers as prisoners of war who should be treated under the terms of the Geneva Convention on war prisoners, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said yesterday.
Mr Bacon however refused to be drawn out on where precisely the three soldiers were captured by Serb forces, saying only that the issue of whether or not they were inside Serb territory was still under investigation.
Asked if classification of the three soldiers as POWs amounted to US admission that it was at war with Yugoslavia, Mr Bacon said: "absolutely not."
Meanwhile, the US is deploying 13 additional F-117 "Stealth" fighters for use in NATO air strikes in Serbia, the Pentagon announced yesterday. The EU Commissioner in charge of humanitarian aid, Ms Emma Bonino, yesterday likened the flight of refugees from Kosovo to a scene from the film Schindler's List after returning from border crossings in Albania and Macedonia.