ZAGREB REMEMBERS SERB REBEL MISSILE ATTACKS NINE YEARS AGO

ZAGREB, May 2 (Hina) - Nine years ago on Sunday, Serb rebels fired missiles on Zagreb in retaliation for a military defeat the previous day in the Western Slavonia region. The attack was repeated the next day, killing six people and wounding 175, 39 seriously.#L# The first explosions were heard at 1023 hours on May 2, 1995 as the city centre was hit by several missiles filled with cluster ammunition. Serb rebel leader Milan Martic admitted in front of television cameras that the attack had been carried out in retaliation for the military defeat in Operation Flash. Martic was later indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for ordering the missile attack on Zagreb. In the repeated attack on May 3, 1991, missiles hit the Children's Hospital, a home for the retired and the Croatian National Theatre, where ballet dancers were in the middle of their practice. The impact areas were strewn with around 500 unexploded bomb fragments, popularly known as "bomblets", posing an additional threat to citizens. A police officer was killed while trying to defuse one of the bomblets. Some buildings in the city still bear visible marks of damage caused by bomblets. (Hina) vm