NATO drops 10 bombs on the Kosovo village of Korisa, possibly killing up to 100 ethnic Albanian refugees. US defence secretary William Cohen says there is a "very distinct possibility" that the refugees were being used as human shields to protect a Serbian police/army command post. Six days later NATO hit a hospital in Belgrade after a laser guided bomb aimed at a nearby army barracks failed to track correctly. Bad weather has continued to disrupt operations, reducing NATO's strike rate on day 54/17 May to 83, 25 of which were against air defence sites: 343 sorties were flown in total. Similar sortie rates were flown the following day. NATO claims to have destroyed 69% of the Yugoslav Mikoyan MiG-29 fleet, 24% of the Mikoyan MiG-21 inventory, 46% of the Soko Galebs and 33% of Soko Super Galebs. The UK has withdrawn HMS Invincible from the Adriatic and it will not be replaced. The government says the build up of land-based aircraft removes the need for the carrier and its air defence dedicated British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA2s. The US Senate approved the emergency funding bill providing around $9 billion for the war effort and humanitarian relief for Kosovo refugees.
Source: Flight International
