Amid Sarajevo Battles, Serbians Reportedly Agree to Open Airport

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Serbian forces reportedly agreed Saturday to allow Sarajevo’s airport to reopen for emergency relief flights, even as they pounded the besieged city with heavy cannon and mortar fire.

Fourteen people were killed and 125 hurt in fighting in the Bosnian capital in a 24-hour period ending Saturday, said Croatian radio, monitored in Zagreb.

Hungry Sarajevo residents took advantage of a lull in the fighting Saturday morning to replenish dwindling stores of food. But by afternoon, people fled for shelter as shelling began again near the town’s center.

Belgrade radio said Muslims were attacking Serbs at the airport but that the attacks were repelled. Croatian radio said some parts of the city were under artillery fire from the Serb-held positions at the airport.

The agreement on reopening the airport, which has been closed for almost two months, came when the U.N. team in Sarajevo met with Serbian militia leader Radovan Karadzic, the Belgrade-based news agency Tanjug said. But no date was set for the reopening.

Karadzic reportedly also said that Serbs had agreed to U.N. conditions to pull their artillery back.

Despite the apparently promising developments, the State Department on Saturday urged U.S. citizens in Serbia and Montenegro to leave immediately while commercial transportation is still available.