SERBS ESCAPE TOWARDS KUPRES AND SIPOVO

MOSTAR, Nov 3, (Hina) - Bosnian Serbs were withdrawing further from Kupres battlelines in south west Bosnia today because they had lost considerable territory which they occupied, the Herceg-Bosnia Defence Ministry said in a statement today. On the eastern side of the Kupres plateau, in the villages of Rilic and Vukovsko and others, Serbs were encircled by HVO (Croatian Defence Council) units. During the course of the day, Chetniks south and southwest of the battlelines lost some strategically elevated points including Kamenita Glava, Runjavi Vrh and others. This loss coupled with human and technical losses let go of the battlelines and escape towards Kupres and Sipovo. One more tank and several Serb soldiers were captured this morning. To date HVO forces liberated 251 square kilometers of occupied territory. According to the Herceg-Bosnia Defence Ministry statement, Serbs yesterday at 14,50hrs launched an artillery attack at the western Usora battlelines (110kms north of Sarajevo) at Kriz. They fired more than 30 projectiles. At 16.00hrs they attacked civilian targets in the village of Ularice with 82mm mortars. At Mostar battlelines Serb forces yesterday afternoon fired a number of mortar rounds at the village of Barane and opened anti- aircraft machine gun fire at Croat defence positions, but there were no casualties, the source said. (Hina) mm sd ks 031334 MET nov 94