> > http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4718825 > Two Wounded in NATO Night-Time Karadzic Raid > Wed Mar 31, 2004 > > By Zeljko Debelnogic > > PALE, Bosnia (Reuters) - NATO peacekeepers mounted a night-time swoop on > Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic's old stronghold > Thursday during which gunfire and an explosion were heard and two people > were reported wounded. > > "We are looking for Karadzic," a NATO source told Reuters. > > A Reuters cameraman at the scene saw troops of the NATO-led peacekeeping > force SFOR seal off the center of the small town of Pale, in mountains > near the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, as helicopters hovered overhead and > one landed. > > Dozens of troops fanned out in the darkness shortly after one a.m. (6 > p.m. EST Wednesday) around the Serbian Orthodox church and an adjacent > house where priests live. There was a sound of shattering glass. > > Two stretcher parties were seen carrying loads back to the helicopter > and the NATO source later said "two non-NATO people" had been wounded, > but gave no further details. > > At SFOR headquarters in Sarajevo, a spokesman would say only that "there > is an ongoing operation in Pale." > > SFOR has in recent months intensified its seven-year hunt for Karadzic, > wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague on two > charges of genocide for the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in the 1992-95 > war. > > The former leader of the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic has a price of > $5 million on his head. He and his former army commander General Ratko > Mladic rank as the most wanted Balkan fugitives still at large. > > Both are accused of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to > 8,000 Muslim men and boys, as well as the siege of Sarajevo in which > some 12,000 were killed. > > Karadzic is long believed to have moved between various remote hideouts > in mountainous eastern Bosnia and neighboring Montenegro, with the help > of a network of supporters. > > In a major operation in January, NATO troops spent three days in Pale > searching the church, local clinic and buildings associated with the > Karadzic family. > > NATO sources said they were acting on a tip that he had been forced to > seek urgent medical attention in his old stronghold where his wife still > lives.