Unlike earlier mishaps in the air war, when bombs strayed from their intended targets, officials said the Chinese Embassy was hit by four bombs that had been targeted on the new five-story building, in the belief that it was the Yugoslav military's weapons warehouse and procurement center. But throughout the day, alliance military spokesmen in Brussels and Washington could not provide details of how such a mix-up could have occurred. Officials declined repeated requests to produce a map showing where the embassy was in relation to the procurement center or even to estimate the distance between the two sites. Initial reports said missiles were used in the attack, but in fact they were laser-guided bombs. Alliance officials also sidestepped several questions about why NATO had risked bombing in an area so close to the embassy of a country such as China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council and a vocal critic of the NATO action.
Chinese cooperation is considered crucial in forging a U.N.-sanctioned peace plan for Kosovo.
Here in Brussels, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz reiterated that NATO never has nor will intentionally bomb civilian targets. But under tense questioning, Jertz declined to say who approved and reviewed the collateral damage risks for Friday night's missions over Belgrade. Jertz said those questions and others would be addressed in an official inquiry launched today. The strategy, driven largely by political considerations among NATO countries, is designed to force Milosevic to accept allied peace terms without having to put allied lives in jeopardy in a long and costly ground war.