SEVERE CLASHES CONTINUE ON BATTLEFRONTS OF VARES AND BRCKO

SARAJEVO, Aug 8 (Hina) - No incident of sniper fire was registered in the inner city of Sarajevo on Sunday by the U.N. military observers, as a spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), Major Rob Annink, said today. This seemed to be the result of reinforced anti-sniper teams' patrols that had been engaged from Saturday. The teams on patrol have authority to examine all places, including flats where marksmen are believed to be hidden. A lot of troops have been deployed to deter these marksmen, according to Annink. The U.N. sources confirmed that severe fighting was continuing southeast of Vares in the area of Brgule (30 km N. of Sarajevo). The U.N. military observers reported that the Army of Bosnia- Herzegovina along with the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) units had made a breakthrough in this region gaining from 10 to 12 square metres of new territory. The village of Brgule are now under control of the Bosnian army, while Bosnian Serbs are preparing a counteroffensive, Major Annink said today. The Serb forces have already undertaken military activities to return the lost territory near Brcko (north Bosnia). The U.N. observers registered severe Serb attacks at the village of Donja Brka in order to take it back. After the Bosnian army succeeded in liberating this village the strategically important so-called Posavina corridor (on which Serb rely for resupplying their areas in northwestern Bosnia) was narrowed considerably. The ground around Brcko facilitates the use of heavy arms, including tanks of which Serb forces are not short, according to Maj. Annink. Fighting in western Bosnia flared up this morning between the Bosnian army and soldiers loyal to Fikret Abdic. The French UNPROFOR troops reported about these clashes in a region northeast of Pecigrad, the town which the Army of B-H took under its control a few days ago. (hina) mar mm 081519 MET aug 94