Serbia to learn where bombs dropped

United Press International
Sunday, 16 September 2007

LONDON, 16 (UPI) -- NATO has agreed to tell Serbians where thousands of aging explosives are -- eight years after the bombs were dropped.

NATO chiefs will release the coordinates of thousands of cluster bombs that had a 5 percent failure rate, Britain's Independent reported Sunday.

That rate of failure means up to 20,000 undetonated bombs could remain across the Kosovo-Serbian landscape, the newspaper said.

The United States, Britain and Holland dropped the bombs in 1999 during a three-month campaign to end Serbian oppression in Kosovo.

Since then, at least six Serbs, including three children, have been killed and 12 people, including six children, wounded by the exploding munitions, The Independent reported.

The three countries and NATO agreed to release the bomb coordinates after intense pressure from Serbian and British leaders.