Shells kill Sarajevo children

AT LEAST six children were killed and three others seriously injured in Sarajevo yesterday during shelling that shattered a calm, sunny day and the play of scores of youngsters in fresh snow. Three mortar bombs landed in the suburb of Alipasino Polje.

In a protest letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Bosnia's Muslim-led government said the incident pointed to the urgent need for air strikes to knock out the artillery of Serb forces which have battered the capital for 21 months.

Snow was scarlet with blood or blackened from blasts where the shells landed. Bosnian television showed pictures of a child's sled covered in blood.

The deaths occurred only hours after the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, said a UN troop pull-out from Bosnia could lead to even greater savagery.

Muslims advance, page 10