Britons 'shot snipers dead'

ZAGREB (Reuter, PA) - British United Nations peace-keeping troops have shot dead Muslim and Croat snipers after being fired on in a series of incidents over the past few weeks in central Bosnia, a UN spokeswoman said yesterday.

'Snipers have been clearly identified, targeted and eliminated. It is quite clear if UN personnel are shot at that they will shoot back and shoot to kill,' said Shannon Boyd of the UN Protection Force, Unprofor. 'A not insignificant number have been (killed) . . . over the past several weeks.'

The UN peace-keepers have a mandate to fire back if attacked, and more than 40 of them have been killed in the former Yugoslavia since being sent there soon after war broke out 16 months ago.

Ms Boyd had no figures on the number of attackers killed or the circumstances of their deaths. But she said the number of sniping incidents targeting Unprofor vehicles and troops in central Bosnia had risen markedly in recent weeks. 'In every case fire has been returned and there have certainly been a number of casualties as a result,' she said at Unprofor headquarters in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

The British Army emphasised that it was impossible to confirm precise numbers involved as some of the action took place at night. On other occasions, fighting was too intense to go out and check if anybody had been killed.