View source for NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

{{short description|1999 military operation}}
{{pp-sock|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
| partof            = the [[Kosovo War]]
| image             = Нато бомбе изазивале еколошку катастрофу у Новом Саду.jpeg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = The Yugoslav city of [[Novi Sad]] on fire in 1999
| date              = 24 March – 10 June 1999<ref name="nato"/> ({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=3|day1=24|year1=1999|month2=6|day2=10|year2=1999}})
| place             = [[Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslavia]]<ref name="cnn"/>
| territory         = [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244|UN Resolution 1244]]; ''[[de facto]]'' separation of [[Kosovo]] from [[Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslavia]] under [[United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo|UN temporary administration]]
| result            = NATO victory<ref>References:
* Stigler, Andrew L. "A clear victory for air power: NATO's empty threat to invade Kosovo." International Security 27.3 (2003): 124–157.
* Biddle, Stephen. "The new way of war? Debating the Kosovo model." (2002): 138–144.
* Dixon, Paul. "Victory by spin? Britain, the US and the propaganda war over Kosovo." Civil Wars 6.4 (2003): 83–106.
* Harvey, Frank P. "Getting NATO's success in Kosovo right: The theory and logic of counter-coercion." Conflict Management and Peace Science 23.2 (2006): pp. 139–158.</ref>
* [[Kumanovo Agreement]]
* Establishment and deployment of [[Kosovo Force|KFOR]]<ref>Stigler, Andrew L. "A clear victory for air power: NATO's empty threat to invade Kosovo." ''International Security 27.3'' (2003): pp. 124–157.</ref><ref>Biddle, Stephen. "The new way of war? Debating the Kosovo model." (2002): 138–144.</ref><ref>Dixon, Paul. "Victory by spin? Britain, the US and the propaganda war over Kosovo." ''Civil Wars 6.4'' (2003): pp. 83–106.</ref><ref>Harvey, Frank P. "Getting NATO's success in Kosovo right: The theory and logic of counter-coercion." ''Conflict Management and Peace Science 23.2'' (2006): pp. 139–158.</ref>
* Withdrawal of [[Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslav forces]] from [[Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija|Kosovo and Metohija]]
* Establishment of [[United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo|UNMIK]]
* Substantial damage to Yugoslav economy and infrastructure<ref>[[#Parenti|Parenti (2000)]], pp.&nbsp;198</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2015&mm=03&dd=24&nav_id=93575|title=Serbia marks another anniversary of NATO attacks– English– on B92.net|access-date=29 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910043343/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2015&mm=03&dd=24&nav_id=93575|archive-date=10 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/the-us-war-on-yugoslavia_b_211172.html|title=The US War on Yugoslavia: Ten Years Later|first=Stephen|last=Zunes|website=[[HuffPost]]|date=6 July 2009|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831132221/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/the-us-war-on-yugoslavia_b_211172.html|archive-date=31 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Return of [[Kosovo Albanians|Albanian]] refugees to Kosovo
* Departure of many [[Kosovo Serbs|Serb]] and other non-Albanian civilians<ref>{{cite web|title=Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|date=August 1999|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010200756/https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=After Yugoslavia: Identities and Politics Within the Successor States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkQ3I6GyClEC&pg=PA29 |date=2012|page=30|isbn=9780230201316 |last1=Hudson |first1=Robert |last2=Bowman |first2=Glenn | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Kosovo Crisis Update|url=http://www.unhcr.org/3ae6b80f2c.html|publisher=[[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|United Nations High Commission for Refugees]]|date=4 August 1999|access-date=24 March 2019|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016002408/http://www.unhcr.org/3ae6b80f2c.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Siobhán Wills|title=Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoqQ7kBrlSAC&pg=PA219|access-date=24 February 2013|date=26 February 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-953387-9|page=219|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171634/https://books.google.com/books?id=QoqQ7kBrlSAC&pg=PA219|url-status=live}}</ref>
| combatant1        = {{Collapsible list
|bullets = yes
|title = {{flag|NATO|size=23px}}
| {{flag|Belgium}}
| {{flag|Canada}}
| {{flag|Denmark}}
| {{flag|France|1974}}
| {{flag|Germany}}
| {{flag|Italy}}
| {{flag|Netherlands}}
| {{flag|Norway}}<ref name="Norske jagerfly på vingene i går"/>
| {{flag|Portugal}}
| {{flag|Spain}}
| {{flag|Turkey}}<ref name="Turkish Air Force"/>
| {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| {{flag|United States|1960}}
}}
| combatant2        = {{flag|Serbia and Montenegro|name=FR Yugoslavia}}
| commander1        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|NATO}} [[Wesley Clark]] <br />([[SACEUR]])
* {{flagicon|NATO}} [[Rupert Smith]]<br />([[Supreme Allied Commander Europe#Deputy|DSACEUR]])
* {{flagicon|NATO}} [[Michael C. Short]]<br />([[Allied Air Forces Southern Europe|AIRSOUTH]])
* {{flagicon|NATO}} [[James O. Ellis]]<br />([[Allied Joint Force Command Naples|AFSOUTH]])<ref name="Operation Allied Force - Operation Allied Force in Kosovo"/>
* {{flagicon|NATO}} [[Javier Solana]]<br />([[Secretary General of NATO]])
}}
----
{{flagicon|United States}} [[John W. Hendrix]]<ref name="Task Force Hawk"/>
| commander2        = {{plainlist|
* {{Flagicon image|Flag of the President of Yugoslavia (1993–2003).svg|size=23px}} [[Slobodan Milošević]]
* {{flagicon|Serbia and Montenegro}} [[Dragoljub Ojdanić]]
* {{flagicon|Serbia and Montenegro}} [[Nebojša Pavković]]
* {{flagicon|Serbia and Montenegro}} [[Spasoje Smiljanić]]
* {{flagicon|Serbia and Montenegro}} [[Milan Zec]]
}}
| strength1         = '''NATO''':{{Indented plainlist|
* 1,031+ aircraft<ref name="Kosovo operation allied force after-action report"/>
* 30 warships & submarines<ref name="GroupedRef4"/>
* [[Task Force Hawk]]
}}
| strength2         = {{Indented plainlist|
* 114,000 regulars
* 20,000 police
* 1,270 tanks
* 825 armoured vehicles<ref name="GroupedRef4" />
* 1,400 artillery pieces
* 100 [[Surface to air missile|SAM]] launchers
* 14 modern combat aircraft<ref>NATOs AirWar for Kosovo, Benjamin S. Lambert</ref>
}}
| casualties1       = {{Indented plainlist|
* 3 jet fighters destroyed
* 3 jet fighters damaged
* 2 helicopters destroyed
* 46 [[Unmanned aerial vehicle|UAVs]] destroyed<ref name="loss">{{cite web|url=http://www.aeronautics.ru/official/lostuavs.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010308225837/http://www.aeronautics.ru/official/lostuavs.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 March 2001|title=Officially confirmed / documented NATO UAV losses|date=8 March 2001}}</ref>
* 2 soldiers killed (out of combat)
* 3 soldiers captured
}}
| casualties2       = '''2013 Serbian MOD estimate:'''{{Indented plainlist|
* 1,008 killed (659 servicemen and 349 policemen)
* 5,173 wounded<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/9/politika/1264384/stradalo-1.008-vojnika-i-policajaca.html|title=Stradalo 1.008 vojnika i policajaca|date=11 February 2013|work=RTS|access-date=2 June 2021|archive-date=3 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603085136/https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/9/politika/1264384/stradalo-1.008-vojnika-i-policajaca.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
}}'''Acc. to [[Humanitarian Law Center|FHP]]:'''<br />304 soldiers and policemen<ref name="hlc-rdc.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hlc-rdc.org/db/nato/index.html|title=Human losses in NATO bombing (Serbia Kosovo, Montenegro)|work=FHP|access-date=24 March 2022|archive-date=24 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324202432/http://www.hlc-rdc.org/db/nato/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><br />
----
'''Material losses:<br />NATO estimate:'''<ref name="Op. Cit., Lambeth 2001: 86"/><ref name="grant2000">{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Rebecca |title=True Blue: Behind the Kosovo Numbers Game |url=https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0800kosovo/ |website=Air & Space Forces Magazine |access-date=23 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923202732/https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0800kosovo/ |archive-date=23 September 2024 |date=1 August 2000}}</ref>{{Indented plainlist|
* 93 tanks destroyed
* 153 APCs destroyed
* 389 artillery pieces destroyed
* 339 other vehicles destroyed
* 121 aircraft destroyed
}}
'''Yugoslav estimate:'''<ref name="grant2000" />{{Indented plainlist|
* 13 tanks destroyed
* 6 APCs destroyed
* 6 artillery pieces destroyed
}}
'''[[Newsweek]] estimate:'''<ref name="grant2000" />{{Indented plainlist|
* 14 tanks destroyed
* 18 APCs destroyed
* 20 artillery pieces destroyed
}}
| casualties3       = '''[[Human Rights Watch]]''' estimate: 489–528 civilians killed (60% of whom were in Kosovo)<ref name="hrw.org"/><br />'''Yugoslav estimate''': 1,200–2,000 civilians killed<ref name="hrw.org"/> and about 6,000 civilians wounded<ref name="РТС55">[http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/125/Dru%C5%A1tvo/1867756/%C5%A0esnaesta+godi%C5%A1njica+NATO+bombardovanja.html „Шеснаеста годишњица НАТО бомбардовања“] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029085957/https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/125/Dru%C5%A1tvo/1867756/%C5%A0esnaesta+godi%C5%A1njica+NATO+bombardovanja.html |date=29 October 2020 }}, РТС, 24. март 2015.</ref><br>'''[[Humanitarian Law Center|FHP]]:''' {{flagdeco|Albania}} 218 Albanians, {{flagdeco|Serbia|1991}} 204 Serbs and 30 others<ref name="hlc-rdc.org"/><br>{{flagicon|China}} 3 Chinese citizens killed in [[United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade|NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade]]
| notes             = 
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Kosovo War}}
{{Bill Clinton series|expanded=Tenure}}
}}

The [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the [[Serbia and Montenegro|Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] during the [[Kosovo War]]. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of the [[Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslav Army]] from Kosovo, and the establishment of the [[United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo]], a UN [[peacekeeping]] mission in Kosovo. The official NATO operation code name was '''Operation Allied Force''' ({{langx|sr|Савезничка сила}} / ''Saveznička sila'') whereas the United States called it '''Operation Noble Anvil''' ({{langx|sr|Племенити наковањ}} / ''Plemeniti nakovanj'');<ref name="Towards a common European security and defense policy: the ways and means of making it a reality" /> in Yugoslavia the operation was incorrectly called '''Merciful Angel''' ({{langx|sr|Милосрдни анђео}} / ''Milosrdni anđeo''), possibly as a result of a misunderstanding or mistranslation.<ref name="RTS-2009">[[Radio Television of Serbia|RTS]]: [http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/1/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0/52257/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%BE+%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0+%22%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B8+%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%92%D0%B5%D0%BE%22 "Порекло имена 'Милосрдни анђео'" ("On the origin of the name 'Merciful Angel'")] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102044701/http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/1/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0/52257/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%BE+%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0+%22%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B8+%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%92%D0%B5%D0%BE%22|date=2 November 2012}}, 26 March 2009 {{in lang|sr}}</ref>

NATO's intervention was prompted by Yugoslavia's bloodshed and [[War crimes in the Kosovo War|ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians]], which drove the Albanians into neighbouring countries and had the potential to destabilize the region. Yugoslavia's actions had already provoked condemnation by international organisations and agencies such as the UN, [[NATO]], and various [[International non-governmental organisation|INGO]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jordan|first=Robert S.|title=International organizations: A comparative approach to the management of cooperation|page=129|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275965495}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Yoshihara|first=Susan Fink|chapter=Kosovo|pages=[https://archive.org/details/flashpointsinwar00reve/page/67 67]–68|editor1-last=Reveron|editor1-first=Derek S.|editor2-last=Murer|editor2-first=Jeffrey Stevenson|title=Flashpoints in the War on Terrorism|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/flashpointsinwar00reve|chapter-url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135449315}}</ref> Yugoslavia's refusal to sign the [[Rambouillet Accords]] was initially offered as justification for NATO's use of force.<ref name="LeidenSuy" /> Because Russia and China could use their veto within the Security Council to not authorize an external intervention,<ref>[https://www.google.ro/books/edition/Legitimising_the_Use_of_Force_in_Interna/kQ-PAgAAQBAJ?hl=ro&gbpv=1&pg=PT175&printsec=frontcover Bjola, p. 175]</ref> NATO launched its campaign without the UN's approval, stating that it was ''[[inter alia]]'' a [[humanitarian intervention]].<ref name="NATO_situation"/> [[Charter of the United Nations|The UN Charter]] prohibits the use of force except in the case of a decision by the Security Council under [[Article 42]], under [[Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter#Article_51:_Self-defence|Article 51]] or under [[Article 53]].<ref name=hrq1>{{Cite journal|last=O'Connell|first=Mary Ellen|year=2000|title=The UN, NATO, and International Law after Kosovo|journal=Human Rights Quarterly|volume=22|issue=1|pages=57–89|doi=10.1353/hrq.2000.0012|jstor=4489267|s2cid=146137597|issn=0275-0392}}</ref> Three days after the commencement of hostilities, on 26 March 1999, the Security Council rejected the demand of Russia, Belarus and India for the cessation of the use of force against Yugoslavia.<ref name="un6659">{{cite news |title=Security Council Rejects Demand for Cessation of Use of Force Against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia  |url=https://press.un.org/en/1999/19990326.sc6659.html |work=SC/6659 |agency=Security Council |publisher=United Nations |date=26 March 1999}}</ref>

By the end of the war, the Yugoslavs had killed 1,500<ref name=Daalder>{{cite book |last1=Daalder |first1=Ivo H. |last2=O'Hanlon |first2=Michel E. |title=Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo |page=151 |year=2000 |edition=2004 |publisher=[[Brookings Institution#Publications|Brookings Institution Press]] |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeQLUvtZnMcC&q=1%2C500+KLA+Fighters |access-date=2 January 2021 |isbn=978-0815798422 |via=[[Google Books]] |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171621/https://books.google.com/books?id=aeQLUvtZnMcC&q=1%2C500+KLA+Fighters |url-status=live }}</ref> to 2,131 combatants.<ref name=HLCDatabase>{{cite web |title=Kosovo Memory Book Database Presentation and Expert Evaluation |publisher=[[Humanitarian Law Center#Kosovo Memory Book|Humanitarian Law Center]] |date=4 February 2015 |url= http://www.kosovomemorybook.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Expert_Evaluation_of_Kosovo_Memory_Book_Database_Prishtina_04_02_2015.pdf |access-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112034039/http://www.kosovomemorybook.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Expert_Evaluation_of_Kosovo_Memory_Book_Database_Prishtina_04_02_2015.pdf |archive-date=12 November 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> 10,317 civilians were killed or missing, with 85% of those being [[Kosovo Albanian|Kosovar Albanian]] and 
some 848,000 were expelled from Kosovo.<ref>{{cite book |last=Judah |first=Tim |title=The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=[[New Haven, Connecticut]] |year=1997 |edition=2009, 3rd |isbn=978-0-300-15826-7 |page=150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxQaCAAAQBAJ&q=848%2C000 |access-date=3 January 2021 |quote=the Serbian police began clearing ... people [who] were marched down to the station and deported... the UNCHR registered 848,000 people who had either been forcibly expelled or had fled |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The NATO bombing killed about 1,000 members of the Yugoslav security forces in addition to between 489 and 528 civilians. It destroyed or damaged bridges, industrial plants, hospitals, schools, cultural monuments, and private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations. In total, between 9 and 11 tonnes of [[depleted uranium]] was dropped across all of Yugoslavia.<ref name="Miljevicetal2001">{{cite journal |last1=Miljević |first1=Nada |last2=Marković |first2=Mirjana |last3=Todorović |first3=Dragana |last4=Cvijović |first4=Mirjana |last5=Dušan |first5=Golobočanin |last6=Orlić |first6=Milan |last7=Veselinović |first7=Dragan |last8=Biočanin |first8=Rade |title=Uranium content in the soil of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after NATO intervention |journal=Archive of Oncology |date=2001 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=245–249 |url=http://www.onk.ns.ac.rs/Archive/Vol9/PDFVol9/V9n4p245.pdf |access-date=31 March 2024}}</ref> In the days after the Yugoslav army withdrew, over 164,000 Serbs and 24,000 Roma left Kosovo. Many of the remaining non-Albanian civilians (as well as Albanians perceived as collaborators) were victims of abuse which included beatings, abductions, and murders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|title=Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo|date=August 1999|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010200756/https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkQ3I6GyClEC&pg=PA29|title=After Yugoslavia: Identities and Politics Within the Successor States|date=2012|page=30|isbn=9780230201316|last1=Hudson|first1=Robert|last2=Bowman|first2=Glenn|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/3ae6b80f2c.html|title=Kosovo Crisis Update|date=4 August 1999|publisher=[[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|United Nations High Commission for Refugees]]|access-date=24 March 2019|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016002408/http://www.unhcr.org/3ae6b80f2c.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osce.org/odihr/21342?download=true|title=Forced Expulsion of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from OSCE Participated state to Kosovo|date=6 October 2006|publisher=[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|OSCE]]|access-date=24 March 2019|archive-date=26 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126062302/http://www.osce.org/odihr/21342?download=true|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Siobhán Wills 219">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoqQ7kBrlSAC&pg=PA219|title=Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers|date= 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-953387-9|page=219|author=Siobhán Wills|access-date=24 February 2013|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171634/https://books.google.com/books?id=QoqQ7kBrlSAC&pg=PA219|url-status=live}}</ref> After Kosovo and other [[Yugoslav Wars]], Serbia became home to the highest number of refugees and [[internally displaced person]]s (including Kosovo Serbs) in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=20&nav_id=75016|title=Serbia home to highest number of refugees and IDPs in Europe|date=20 June 2010|publisher=[[B92]]|access-date=26 March 2019|archive-date=26 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326082532/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=20&nav_id=75016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osce.org/serbia/24323?download=true|title=Serbia: Europe's largest proctracted refugee situation|year=2008|publisher=[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|OSCE]]|access-date=26 March 2019|archive-date=26 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326082139/http://www.osce.org/serbia/24323?download=true|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=el-YZHB8hzYC&pg=PP1|title=Shaping South East Europe's Security Community for the Twenty-First Century: Trust, Partnership, Integration|date= 2013|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]|page=169|author=S. Cross, S. Kentera, R. Vukadinovic, R. Nation|access-date=31 January 2017|isbn=9781137010209|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171651/https://books.google.com/books?id=el-YZHB8hzYC&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref>

The bombing was NATO's second major combat operation, following the [[Operation Deliberate Force|1995 bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. It was the first time that NATO had used military force without the expressed endorsement of the UN Security Council and thus, international legal approval,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zyla |first1=Benjamin |title=The End of European Security Institutions?: The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and NATO After Brexit |date=2020 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783030421601 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkHVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=22 July 2022 |archive-date=22 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722163930/https://books.google.com/books?id=LkHVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |url-status=live }}</ref> which triggered debates over the [[Legitimacy of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia|legitimacy of the intervention]].

==Background==
A [[NATO]]-facilitated ceasefire between the KLA and Yugoslav forces was signed on 15 October 1998, but both sides broke it two months later and fighting resumed. UN Security Council [[resolution 1160]], [[resolution 1199]] and [[resolution 1203]] had been disregarded. When the killing of 45 Kosovar Albanians in the [[Račak massacre]] was reported in January 1999, NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a military peacekeeping force to forcibly restrain the two sides.<ref name="Milutinovic p. 416">[[#Milutinovic et al.|''The Prosecutor vs Milan Milutinović et al. – Judgement'', 26 February 2009]], p. 416.</ref> Yugoslavia refused to sign the [[Rambouillet Accords]], which among other things called for 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo; an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory; immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law; and the right to use local roads, ports, railways, and airports without payment and requisition public facilities for its use free of cost.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=28 April 1999 |title=The Rambouillet text – Appendix B |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/28/balkans12 |work=The Guardian |access-date=5 October 2021 |archive-date=5 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005140404/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/apr/28/balkans12 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="LeidenSuy">{{cite journal | last = Suy | first = Eric | title = NATO's Intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | journal = Leiden Journal of International Law | publisher = Cambridge University Press | pages = 193–205 | date = 2000 | volume = 13 | doi = 10.1017/S0922156500000133 | s2cid = 145232986 | url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/natos-intervention-in-the-federal-republic-of-yugoslavia/0ABB9520FBC5FD26A849699480A48D09 | access-date =  | archive-date = 12 April 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220412203311/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/natos-intervention-in-the-federal-republic-of-yugoslavia/0ABB9520FBC5FD26A849699480A48D09 | url-status = live}}</ref> NATO then prepared to install the peacekeepers by force, using this refusal to justify the bombings.{{cn|date=September 2024}}<section end=KosovoWar />

In its ''Statement Issued at the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council held at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, on 12th April 1999'' three weeks after the start of hostilities on 23 March 1999, the collective said that "The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has repeatedly violated United Nations Security Council resolutions. The unrestrained assault by Yugoslav military, police and paramilitary forces, under the direction of President Milosevic, on Kosovar civilians has created a massive humanitarian catastrophe which also threatens to destabilise the surrounding region. Hundreds of thousands of people have been expelled ruthlessly from Kosovo by the FRY authorities. We condemn these appalling violations of human rights and the indiscriminate use of force by the Yugoslav government. These extreme and criminally irresponsible policies, which cannot be defended on any grounds, have made necessary and justify the military action by NATO."<ref name="NATO_situation"/>

==Goals==
[[NATO]]'s objectives in the [[Kosovo conflict]] were stated at the [[North Atlantic Council]] meeting held at NATO headquarters in [[Brussels]] on 12 April 1999:<ref name="NATO_situation"/>
* An end to all military action and the immediate termination of [[War crimes in the Kosovo War|violence and repressive activities by the Milošević government]];
* Withdrawal of all military, police and paramilitary forces from Kosovo;
* Stationing of UN peacekeeping presence in Kosovo;
* Unconditional and safe return of all [[refugee]]s and displaced persons;
* Establishment of a political framework agreement for Kosovo based on [[Rambouillet Accords]], in conformity with [[international law]] and the [[Charter of the United Nations]].

==Strategy==
Operation Allied Force predominantly used a large-scale [[aerial warfare|air campaign]] to destroy Yugoslav military infrastructure from high altitudes. After the third day of aerial bombing, NATO had destroyed almost all of its strategic military targets in Yugoslavia. Despite this, the Yugoslav army continued to function and to attack [[Kosovo Liberation Army]] (KLA) insurgents inside Kosovo, mostly in the regions of Northern and Southwest Kosovo. NATO bombed strategic economic and societal targets, such as bridges, military facilities, official government facilities, and factories, using long-range cruise missiles to hit heavily defended targets, such as strategic installations in [[Belgrade]] and [[Pristina]]. The NATO air forces also targeted infrastructure, such as power plants (using the [[Graphite bomb|BLU-114/B "Soft-Bomb"]]), water-processing plants and the state-owned broadcaster. The Dutch foreign minister [[Jozias van Aartsen]] said that the strikes on Yugoslavia should be such as to weaken their military capabilities and prevent further humanitarian atrocities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Last War of the 20th century |url=https://international.sp.nl/sites/international.sp.nl/files/the_last_war.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140830064549/http://international.sp.nl/sites/international.sp.nl/files/the_last_war.pdf |archive-date=30 August 2014 |access-date=24 March 2018 |page=10}}</ref>

Due to restrictive media laws, media in Yugoslavia carried little coverage of what its forces were doing in Kosovo, or of other countries' attitudes to the humanitarian crisis; so, few members of the public expected bombing, instead thinking that a diplomatic deal would be made.<ref>{{cite book|last= Judah|title= The Serbs|publisher= Yale University Press|isbn= 978-0-300-15826-7|page= 327|year= 2009}}</ref>

While according to [[Noel Malcolm]]: "During the first few days of the air-strike campaign, while NATO confined itself to the use of cruise missiles and high-altitude bombing, the Serbian forces inside Kosovo embarked on a massive campaign of destruction, burning down houses and using tanks and artillery to reduce entire villages to rubble."<ref>''Kosovo: A Short History'' p. 39. Chapter: Preface to the second edition</ref>

===Arguments for strategic air power===
According to [[John Keegan]], the capitulation of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War marked a turning point in the history of warfare. It "proved that a war can be won by air power alone". Diplomacy had failed before the war, and the deployment of a large NATO ground force was still weeks away when [[Slobodan Milošević]] agreed to a peace deal.<ref name="telegraph"/>

As for why air power should have been capable of acting alone, it has been argued by military analysts that there are several factors required. These normally come together only rarely, but all occurred during the Kosovo War:<ref name="bombardment"/>

# Bombardment needs to be capable of causing destruction while minimising casualties. This causes pressure within the population to end hostilities rather than to prolong them. The exercise of precision air power in the Kosovo War is said by analysts to have provided this.
# The government must be susceptible to pressure from within the population. As was demonstrated by the [[Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević|overthrow of Milošević]] a year later, the Yugoslav government was only weakly authoritarian and depended upon support from within the country.
# There must be a disparity of military capabilities such that the opponent is unable to inhibit the exercise of air superiority over its territory. [[Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)|Serbia]], a relatively small impoverished [[Balkan]] state, faced a much more powerful [[NATO]] coalition including the United Kingdom and the United States.
# [[Carl von Clausewitz]] once called the "essential mass of the enemy" his "centre of gravity". Should the center of gravity be destroyed, a major factor in Yugoslav will to resist would be broken or removed. In Milošević's case, the centre of gravity was his hold on power. He manipulated hyperinflation, sanctions and restrictions in supply and demand to allow powerful business interests within Serbia to profit and they responded by maintaining him in power. The damage to the economy, which squeezed it to a point where there was little profit to be made, threatened to undermine their support for Milošević if the air campaign continued, whilst causing costly infrastructure damage.<ref name="history"/>

===Arguments against strategic air power===
# Diplomacy:
## According to British Lieutenant-General Mike Jackson, Russia's decision on 3 June 1999 to back the West and to urge Milošević to surrender was the single event that had "the greatest significance in ending the war".  The Yugoslav capitulation came the same day.<ref name="telegraph2"/> Russia relied on Western economic aid at the time, which made it vulnerable to pressure from NATO to withdraw support for Milošević.<ref name="history3"/>
## Milošević's indictment by the UN as a war criminal (on 24 May 1999), even if it did not influence him personally, made the likelihood of Russia resuming diplomatic support less likely.<ref name="rand"/>
## The [[Rambouillet Agreement]] of 18 March 1999, had Yugoslavia agreed to it, would have given NATO forces the right of transit, [[Bivouac shelter|bivouac]], [[Military exercise|manoeuvre]], [[billet]], and use across Serbia. By the time Milošević capitulated, NATO forces were to have access only to Kosovo proper.<ref name="hosmer2001"/>
## The international civil presence in the province was to be under UN control which allowed for a Russian veto should Serb interests be threatened.<ref name="hosmer2001"/>
# Concurrent ground operations – The KLA undertook operations in Kosovo itself and had some successes against Serb forces. The Yugoslav army abandoned a border post opposite Morinë near the Yugoslav army outpost at [[Košare, Gjakova|Košare]] in the north west of the province. The Yugoslav army outpost at Košare had remained in Yugoslav hands throughout the war: this allowed for a supply line to be set up into the province and the subsequent taking of territory in the [[Junik]] area. The KLA also penetrated a few miles into the south-western [[Mount Paštrik]] area. But most of the province remained under Serb control.<ref name="hosmer5"/>
# Potential ground attack – General [[Wesley Clark]], [[Supreme Allied Commander Europe]], was "convinced" that planning and preparations for ground intervention "in particular, pushed Milošević to concede".<ref name="general"/> The Yugoslav capitulation occurred on the same day that US President [[Bill Clinton]] held a widely publicised meeting with his four [[Joint Chiefs of Staff|service chiefs]] to discuss options for a ground-force deployment in case the air war failed.<ref name="lambeth"/> However, France and Germany vigorously opposed a ground offensive, and had done so for some weeks, since April 1999. French estimates suggested that an invasion would need an army of 500,000 to achieve success. This left NATO, particularly the United States, with a clear view that a land operation had no support. With this in mind, the US reaffirmed its faith in the air campaign.<ref name="ritchie"/> The reluctance of NATO to use ground forces cast serious doubt on the idea that Milošević capitulated out of fear of a land invasion.<ref name="ritchie6"/>

==Operation==
On 20 March 1999, [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|OSCE]] [[Kosovo Verification Mission]] monitors withdrew from Kosovo citing a "steady deterioration in the security situation",<ref name=PerlezJ-TNYT-1999-03-22>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E0D71031F931A15750C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=Conflict in the Balkans: The Overview; Milosevic to Get One 'Last Chance' to Avoid Bombing|last=Perlez|first=Jane|date=22 March 1999|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=15 February 2009|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171624/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/22/world/conflict-balkans-overview-milosevic-get-one-last-chance-avoid-bombing.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Kosovo Verification Mission (Closed)|publisher=[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]]|url=http://www.osce.org/node/44552|access-date=22 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119202021/http://www.osce.org/node/44552|archive-date=19 January 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> and on 23 March 1999 [[Richard Holbrooke]] returned to Brussels and announced that peace talks had failed.<ref name="bbc23mar99"/> Hours before the announcement, Yugoslavia announced on national television it had declared a [[state of emergency]] citing an "imminent threat of war ... against Yugoslavia by Nato" and began a huge mobilisation of troops and resources.<ref name="bbc23mar99"/><ref name="wp99mar24"/> On 23 March 1999 at 22:17 UTC the [[Secretary General of NATO]], [[Javier Solana]], announced he had directed the [[Supreme Allied Commander Europe]] (SACEUR), General [[Wesley Clark]], to "initiate air operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."<ref name="wp99mar24"/><ref name="Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, Secretary General of NATO"/>

===NATO operations===
{{see also|Civilian casualties during Operation Allied Force}}
[[File:serb-milit-bomb-nato.jpg|thumb|left|[[Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building]] damaged during [[NATO]] bombing]]

The campaign involved 1,000 aircraft operating from air bases in Italy and Germany, and the aircraft carrier {{USS|Theodore Roosevelt|CVN-71|6}} sailing in the [[Adriatic Sea]]. During the ten weeks of the conflict, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

On 24 March at 19:00 UTC NATO started the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.<ref name="The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned"/><ref name="Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General following the Commencement of Air Operations"/> [[F/A-18 Hornet]]s of the [[Spanish Air Force]] were the first NATO planes to bomb Belgrade and perform [[SEAD]] operations. [[BGM-109 Tomahawk]] [[cruise missile]]s were fired from ships and [[submarine]]s in the Adriatic.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

In addition to fixed-wing air power, one battalion of [[Apache helicopter]]s from the [[United States Army|US Army]]'s [[11th Aviation Regiment]] was deployed to help combat missions.{{cn|date=January 2023}} The regiment was augmented by pilots from [[Fort Bragg (North Carolina)|Fort Bragg]]'s [[82nd Airborne]] Attack Helicopter Battalion. The battalion secured AH-64 Apache attack helicopter refueling sites, and a small team forward deployed to the Albania – Kosovo border to identify targets for NATO air strikes.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

The campaign was initially designed to destroy Yugoslav air defences and high-value military targets.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} NATO military operations increasingly attacked Yugoslav units on the ground, as well as continuing the strategic bombardment. Montenegro was bombed several times, and NATO refused to prop up the precarious position of its anti-Milošević leader, [[Milo Đukanović]]. "[[Dual-use]]" targets, used by civilians and military, were attacked, including bridges across the [[Danube]], factories, power stations, telecommunications facilities, the headquarters of [[Yugoslav Left]]ists, a political party led by Milošević's wife, and the [[Avala TV Tower]]. Some protested that these actions were violations of [[international law]] and the [[Geneva Conventions]]. NATO argued these facilities were potentially useful to the Yugoslav military and thus their bombing was justified.<ref name=challenged/>

[[File:Ostruznica Highway Bridge.jpg|thumb|[[Ostružnica Bridge]] hit during Operation Allied Force]]

On 12 April, NATO airstrikes [[Grdelica train bombing|struck a railway bridge in Grdelica]], hitting a civilian passenger train and killing twenty people.<ref name="HRW civilian deaths">{{cite web |title=Kosovo: Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a86b0.html |website=refworld.org |publisher=Human Rights Watch |date=1 February 2000 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=27 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327114103/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a86b0.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Showing video footage, General Wesley Clark later apologized and stated that the train had been traveling too fast and the bomb was too close to the target for it to divert in time. The German daily ''[[Frankfurter Rundschau]]'' reported in January 2000 that the NATO video had been shown at three times its real speed, giving a misleading impression of the train's speed.<ref>{{cite news |title=NATO used speeded-up film to excuse civilian deaths in Kosovo: newspaper |work=AFP |date=6 January 2000 |quote=Videotape shown by NATO to explain the killing of at least 14 civilians aboard a train on a bridge in Serbia last April was shown at triple its real speed, the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau reports in its Thursday edition … General Wesley Clark, shortly afterwards showed two videotapes of the train appearing to be traveling fast on the bridge, and said it had then been impossible to alter the missiles' trajectories. The Frankfurt newspaper said the two videotapes were both shown at three times normal speed. A spokesman for NATO'S military command in Mons, Belgium, acknowledged in a telephone interview with AFP that those images had been altered by "a technical problem."}}</ref>

On 14 April, NATO planes [[Koriša bombing|bombed ethnic Albanians near Koriša]] who had been used by Yugoslav forces as human shields.<ref>{{cite news|last=Englund|title=Refugees call Korisa a setup|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1999/06/20/refugees-call-korisa-a-setup-serbs-locked-them-up-to-die-survivors-say/|access-date=4 July 2012|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=20 June 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222015046/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-06-20/news/9906220504_1_refugees-yugoslavia-korisa|archive-date=22 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Krieger|title=The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974–1999|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521800716|page=352}}</ref> Yugoslav troops took TV crews to the scene shortly after the bombing.<ref>{{cite news|title=NATO says target was military post|newspaper=Sunday Free Lance-Star|date=16 May 1999}}</ref> The Yugoslav government insisted that NATO had targeted civilians.<ref>{{cite news|title=Once Again, NATO Admits Accidental Bombing of Civilians|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/05/16/once-again-nato-admits-accidental-bombing-of-civilians/|access-date=4 July 2012|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=16 May 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222004953/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-05-16/news/9905160355_1_korisa-serbian-soldiers-and-police-nato-official|archive-date=22 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Yugoslavia says village death toll tops 100"/><ref name="Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis in Kosovo"/>

On 23 April, NATO [[NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters|bombed the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters]] killing sixteen civilian employees. This was labeled as a war crime by [[Amnesty International]].<ref>{{cite web| publisher= Amnesty International| url= https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/no-justice-victims-nato-bombings-20090423| title= No justice for the victims of NATO bombings| date= 23 April 2009| access-date= 18 February 2013| archive-date= 8 February 2015| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150208204009/http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/no-justice-victims-nato-bombings-20090423| url-status= dead}}</ref> NATO claimed that the bombing was justified because the station operated as a propaganda tool for the Milošević regime.<ref name=challenged>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1616461.stm | work=BBC News | title=Nato challenged over Belgrade bombing | date=24 October 2001 | access-date=11 September 2022 | archive-date=1 September 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901180153/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1616461.stm | url-status=live }}</ref>

On 7 May, [[U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade|the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade]], killing three Chinese journalists and injuring at least 20.<ref name=bbc-20190507-dead-injured>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |title=The night the US bombed a Chinese embassy |first1=Kevin |last1=Ponniah |first2=Lazara |last2=Marinkovic |work=BBC News |date=7 May 2019 |access-date=12 October 2021 |quote=In total, three people were killed and at least 20 injured. |archive-date=30 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330123020/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |url-status=live }}</ref> The US defence secretary explained the cause of the error as "because the bombing instructions were based on an outdated map", but the Chinese government did not accept this explanation. The Chinese government issued a statement on the day of the bombing, stating that it was a "barbarian act".<ref>{{cite news |title=Chinese demand U.N. meeting after Belgrade embassy attacked |work=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/07/kosovo.05/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402163309/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/07/kosovo.05/index.html |archive-date=2 April 2015}}</ref> The target had been selected by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] outside the normal NATO targeting regime. The US president Bill Clinton apologised for the bombing, saying it was an accident.<ref>{{Cite web|date=10 May 1999|title=Clinton apologizes to China over embassy bombing |url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/10/kosovo.china.02/|access-date=2021-10-12|website=CNN|archive-date=27 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327004334/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/10/kosovo.china.02/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=10 May 1999|title=Youth Violence and Embassy Bombing Apology |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?123188-1%2Fyouth-violence-embassy-bombing-apology|access-date=2021-10-12|website=[[C-SPAN]].org|language=en-us|archive-date=26 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226093356/https://www.c-span.org/video/?123188-1%2Fyouth-violence-embassy-bombing-apology|url-status=live}} Begin time: 00:34 End time: 01:54</ref><ref name=crs-report-dumbaugh-apology>{{Cite web|last=Dumbaugh|first=Kerry|date=12 April 2000|title=Chinese Embassy Bombing in Belgrade: Compensation Issues|url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS20547.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-21|website=EveryCRSReport.com|language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028171239/https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS20547.html |archive-date=2021-10-28 |quote=U.S. officials offered a number of apologies for the attack...May 10, 1999 – President Clinton, in opening remarks at a White House strategy meeting on children and violence, began with 'I would like to say a word about the tragic bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. I have already expressed our apology and our condolences to President Jiang and to the Chinese people....'}}</ref> The US gave China financial compensation.<ref name=bbc-20190507>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |title=The night the US bombed a Chinese embassy |author1=Kevin Ponniah |author2=Lazara Marinkovic |work=BBC News |date=7 May 2019 |access-date=7 May 2019 |archive-date=30 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330123020/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"/> The bombing strained relations between the People's Republic of China and NATO, provoking angry demonstrations outside Western embassies in Beijing.<ref name="Dumbaugh"/> The victims were Xu Xinghu, his wife Zhu Ying, and Shao Yunhuan. An October 1999 investigation by ''[[The Observer]]'' and ''[[Politiken]]'' argued that the bombing had actually been deliberate as the Embassy was being used to transmit Yugoslav army communications, something that NATO, the UK and the US emphatically denied.<ref name="observer1">{{cite news |last1=Vulliamy |first1=Ed |last2=Holsoe |first2=Jens |last3=Vulliamy |first3=Ed |date=17 October 1999 |title=Nato bombed Chinese deliberately |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/17/balkans |access-date= |work=The Observer |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Holsøe |first1=Jens |last2=Larsen |first2=Jørgen |last3=Leijonhufvud |first3=Göran |date=17 October 1999 |title=Kina hjalp Jugoslavien |trans-title=China helped Yugoslavia |url=https://politiken.dk/search/?q=NATO%20ambassade&target=epaper&fDate=1999-10-17&tDate=1999-10-17 |url-access=subscription |work=Politiken |pages=1, 10 |language=da}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ponniah |first1=Kevin |last2=Marinkovic |first2=Lazara |date=7 May 2019 |title=The night the US bombed a Chinese embassy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48134881 |access-date=12 October 2021 |work=BBC News |quote=US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright decried the story as 'balderdash', while British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said there was 'not a single shred of evidence'  to support it.}}</ref> In April 2000, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published its own investigation, claiming to have found "no evidence that the bombing of the embassy had been a deliberate act."<ref name="WideNet_no_evidence">{{cite news |author=Steven Lee Myers |date=17 April 2000 |title=Chinese Embassy Bombing: A Wide Net of Blame |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/17/world/chinese-embassy-bombing-a-wide-net-of-blame.html |url-access=limited |access-date=18 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |location= |quote=While the investigation produced no evidence that the bombing of the embassy had been a deliberate act, it provided a detailed account of a broader set of missteps than the United States or NATO have acknowledged...All of the officials interviewed by the Times said they knew of no evidence to support the assertion, and none has been produced.}}</ref>

====NATO command organisation====
Solana directed Clark to "initiate air operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". Clark then delegated responsibility for the conduct of Operation Allied Force to the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Southern Europe, who in turn delegated control to the Commander of Allied Air Forces Southern Europe, Lieutenant-General Michael C. Short, USAF.<ref name="Biographies:Lieutenant General Michael C. Short"/> Operationally, the day-to-day responsibility for executing missions was delegated to the Commander of the 5th Allied Tactical Air Force.<ref name="nato7"/>

===Yugoslav operations===
[[File:Скела на Дунаву током НАТО бомбардовања 1999 године.jpeg|thumb|[[Internally displaced persons]] crossing the Danube after the destruction of three bridges in Novi Sad]]

[[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia|The Hague Tribunal]] ruled that over 700,000 [[Kosovo Albanians]] were forcibly displaced by Yugoslav forces into neighbouring Albania and [[North Macedonia|Macedonia]], with many thousands internally displaced within Kosovo.<ref name="verdict"/> By April, the United Nations reported 850,000 [[refugee]]s had left Kosovo.<ref name="preparedness"/> Another 230,000 were listed as internally displaced persons (IDPs): driven from their homes, but still inside Kosovo. German Foreign Minister [[Joschka Fischer]] and Defense Minister [[Rudolf Scharping]] claimed at the time that the refugee crisis was produced by a coordinated Yugoslav plan of [[ethnic cleansing]] codenamed "[[Operation Horseshoe]]". The existence and character of such a plan has been called into question.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSc6lOY1M2YC&pg=PA225|title=Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo|first=Sabrina P.|last=Ramet|date= 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521616904|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sUzZWLHEdgwC&pg=PA148|title=Understanding the War in Kosovo|first1=Florian|last1=Bieber|first2=Zidas|last2=Daskalovski|year= 2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780203500736|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9L6ZayN27PAC&pg=PA217|title=Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention|first=Raju G. C.|last=Thomas|date= 2017|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739107577|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4E7hUjI-MmsC&pg=PA199|title=First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia|first=David N.|last=Gibbs|date= 2017|publisher=Vanderbilt University Press|isbn=9780826516459|via=Google Books|access-date=4 June 2020|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171638/https://books.google.com/books?id=4E7hUjI-MmsC&pg=PA199|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spectrezine.org/war/kosovo.html|title=Kosovo one year later: from Serb repression to NATO-sponsored ethnic cleansing|website=spectrezine.org|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027232217/http://www.spectrezine.org/war/kosovo.html|archive-date=27 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jul1999/hs-j29.shtml|title="Operation Horseshoe"{{snd}}propaganda and reality|first=Peter|last=Schwarz|date=29 July 1999 |publisher=wsws.org|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028001815/http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jul1999/hs-j29.shtml|archive-date=28 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_02aVgTaFDYC&pg=PA319|title=Dictionary of Genocide: M–Z|first1=Samuel|last1=Totten|first2=Paul Robert|last2=Bartrop|year=2017|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313346446|via=Google Books|access-date=4 June 2020|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171658/https://books.google.com/books?id=_02aVgTaFDYC&pg=PA319|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7S_qLMjvmYC&pg=PT80|title=The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace|first=Tom|last=Gallagher|date= 2017|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415349406|via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[Radio Television of Serbia|Serbian Television]] claimed that huge columns of [[refugees]] were fleeing Kosovo because of NATO's bombing, not Yugoslav military operations.<ref name="Larsen"/><ref name="Rozen"/> The Yugoslav side and its Western supporters claimed the refugee outflows were caused by a mass panic in the Kosovo Albanian population, and that the exodus was generated principally by fear of NATO bombs.

The United Nations and international human rights organisations were convinced the crisis resulted from a policy of [[ethnic cleansing]]. Many accounts from both Serbs and Albanians identified Yugoslav security forces and paramilitaries as the culprits, responsible for systematically emptying towns and villages of their Albanian inhabitants by forcing them to flee.<ref name="SENSE Tribunal : ICTY"/>{{failed verification|date=April 2024}}<!--The linked source just gives one German journalists' view, not that of 'UN, int'l HR orgs, Serbs and Albanians'; and he actually says that some villages were planned to be evacuated by the KLA while others 'were emptied after they were attacked'.-->

Atrocities against civilians in Kosovo were the basis of United Nations [[war crimes]] charges against Milošević and other officials responsible for directing the Kosovo conflict.

On 29 March 1999, to escape possible destruction, [[Jat Airways]] evacuated around 30 of its fleet of civilian aircraft from Belgrade to neighbouring countries for safekeeping.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Miladinović |first1=Aleksandar |title=Bombardovanje 1999: Kako su "preživeli" avioni Jata |url=https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/srbija-47748675 |access-date=18 January 2022 |work=BBC Serbian |date=29 March 2019 |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118201325/https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/srbija-47748675 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Air combat===
[[File:Против ваздушна одбрана покушава да обори НАТО бомбардере.jpeg|thumb|Yugoslav anti-aircraft fire at night]]
[[File:Bosnia mig29.jpg|thumb|Wreckage of downed Yugoslav [[MiG-29]] in [[Ugljevik]], Bosnia, on 25 March 1999]]
[[File:Zoltán Dani.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Zoltán Dani]], the commander 3rd battery of the Yugoslav [[250th Air Defense Missile Brigade|250th Missile Brigade]], which [[1999 F-117A shoot-down|shot down]] a NATO [[Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk|F-117 Nighthawk]] with the [[S-125 Neva/Pechora|S-125 Neva]]]]

An important portion of the war involved combat between the [[Air Force of Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslav Air Force]] and the opposing air forces from NATO. [[United States Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle|F-15s]] and [[F-16]]s flying from Italian airforce bases attacked the defending Yugoslav fighters, mainly [[MiG-29]]s, which were in poor condition due to a lack of spare parts and maintenance.{{cn|date=January 2023}} Other NATO forces also contributed to the air war.

Air combat incidents:
* During the night of 24/25 March 1999: Yugoslav Air Force scrambled five MiG-29s to counter the initial attacks. Two fighters that took off from [[Niš Constantine the Great Airport|Niš Airport]] were vectored to intercept targets over southern Serbia and Kosovo were dealt with by NATO fighters. The MiG-29 flown by Maj. Dragan Ilić was damaged; he landed with one engine out and the aircraft was later expended as a decoy. The second MiG, flown by Maj. Iljo Arizanov, was shot down by an USAF F-15C piloted by Lt. Col. [[Cesar Rodriguez (pilot)|Cesar Rodriguez]]. A pair from [[Batajnica Air Base]] (Maj. Nebojša Nikolić and Maj. Ljubiša Kulačin) were engaged by USAF Capt. Mike Shower who shot down Nikolić while Kulačin evaded several missiles fired at him, while fighting to bring his malfunctioning systems back to working order. Eventually realising that he could not do anything, and with Batajnica AB under attack, Kulačin diverted to [[Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport]], hiding his aircraft under the tail of a parked airliner.<ref name="Belgrade Airport, Serbia – Aircraft Concealment"/> The fifth and last MiG-29 to get airborne that night was flown by Maj. Predrag Milutinović. Immediately after take-off his radar failed and electrical generator malfunctioned. Shortly after, he was warned of being acquired by fire control radar, but he eluded the opponent by several evasive manoeuvres. Attempting to evade further encounters, he approached Niš Airport, intending to land, but he was eventually shot down by a [[Royal Netherlands Air Force|KLU]] F-16AM flown by Maj. Peter Tankink and forced to eject.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.f-16.net/f-16-news-article607.html |title=How Dutch F-16AMs shot down a Mig-29 |website=F-16.net |date=21 April 1999 |author=Lieven Dewitte |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104180203/http://www.f-16.net/f-16-news-article607.html |archive-date=4 November 2016 |url-status=live  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.f-16.net/f-16-news-article230.html |title=First combat success for F-16MLU |website=F-16.net |date=24 March 1999 |author=Lieven Dewitte |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026231312/http://www.f-16.net/f-16-news-article230.html |archive-date=26 October 2016 |url-status=live  }}</ref>
* In the morning of 25 March, Maj. Slobodan Tešanović stalled his MiG-29 while landing on [[Užice-Ponikve Airport|Ponikve Airbase]] after a re-basing flight. He ejected safely.<ref name="ejection-history1"/><ref name="acig.org"/>
* During the war Yugoslav strike aircraft [[J-22 Orao]]s and [[G-4 Super Galeb]]s performed some 20–30 combat missions against the [[Kosovo Liberation Army|KLA]] in Kosovo at treetop level<ref name="CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE AIR THREAT; Out of NATO's Reach: Yugoslavia's Treetop War – New York Times"/> causing some casualties. During one of those missions on 25 March 1999, Lt. Colonel Života Ðurić was killed when his J-22 Orao hit a hill in Kosovo. It was never firmly established whether an aircraft malfunction, pilot error or if enemy action (by KLA) was the cause (NATO never claimed they shot it down).<ref name="ejection-history1"/>
* In the afternoon of 25 March 1999 two Yugoslav MiG-29s took off from Batajnica to chase a lone NATO aircraft flying in the direction of the Bosnian border. They crossed the border and were engaged by two US [[F-15 Eagle|F-15s]]. Both MiGs were shot down by Captain Jeff Hwang.<ref name="faqs"/> One MiG pilot, Major Slobodan Perić, having evaded at least one missile before being hit ejected, was later smuggled back to Yugoslavia by the [[Republika Srpska]] police. The other pilot, Captain [[Zoran Radosavljević (pilot)|Zoran Radosavljević]], did not eject and was killed.<ref name="Yugoslav"/>
* [[1999 F-117A shootdown|On 27 March 1999]], the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Missile Brigade, under the command of Colonel [[Zoltán Dani]], equipped with the Isayev S-125 'Neva-M' (NATO designation [[SA-3 Goa]]), [[Shooting down of F-117|downed]] an American [[F-117 Nighthawk]].<ref name="Serb discusses 1999 downing of stealth"/><ref name="dictionaryofwar"/> The pilot ejected and was rescued by [[search and rescue]] forces near Belgrade. This was the first and so far{{when|date=September 2022}} only time a [[stealth aircraft]] has been shot down by hostile ground fire in combat.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
* Several times between 5 and 7 April 1999, Yugoslav MiG-29s were scrambled to intercept NATO aircraft, but turned back due to malfunctions.<ref name="acig.org"/>
* On 7 April 1999 four [[IAI RQ-5 Hunter|RQ-5A Hunter UAV]]s were shot down.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/08/23/5-times-in-history-enemies-shot-down-a-us-drone/|title=5 times in history enemies shot down a US drone|first=Cal|last=Pringle|date=23 August 2019|website=C4ISRNET|access-date=20 September 2019|archive-date=20 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920201415/https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/08/23/5-times-in-history-enemies-shot-down-a-us-drone/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* On 30 April, some US sources claim that a second F-117A was damaged by a surface-to-air missile.<ref name="moon"/> Although the aircraft returned to base, it supposedly never flew again.<ref name="das"/><ref name="airforces"/>
* On 2 May, a USAF [[F-16]] was shot down near [[Šabac]] by a [[SA-3]], again fired by the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Missile Brigade. The pilot Lt. Colonel [[David Goldfein]], commander of the [[555th Fighter Squadron]], was rescued.<ref name="holloman">{{cite web| last = Roberts| first = Chris| title = Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia| publisher = F16.net| date = 7 February 2007| url = http://www.f-16.net/news_article2167.html| access-date = 28 March 2019}}</ref> On the same day an [[A-10 Thunderbolt II]] was damaged by a [[Strela 2]] shoulder-mounted SAM over Kosovo and had to make an emergency landing at a [[Skopje "Alexander the Great" Airport|Skopje airport]] in [[North Macedonia|Macedonia]],<ref name="sponauer1"/> and a Marine Corps [[McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II|Harrier]] crashed while returning to the amphibious assault carrier [[USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)|USS ''Kearsarge'']] from a training mission. Its pilot was rescued.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rodgers |first=Walter |title=Two jets crash in Kosovo campaign |url=http://m.cnnespanol.com/WORLD/europe/9905/02/kosovo.01/ |work=cnnespanol.com |publisher=CNN |access-date=17 April 2013 |date=2 May 1999 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620170745/http://m.cnnespanol.com/WORLD/europe/9905/02/kosovo.01/ |archive-date=20 June 2013 }}</ref>
* On 4 May, a Yugoslav [[MiG-29]], piloted by Lt. Col. [[Milenko Pavlović]], commander of the 204th Fighter Aviation Wing, was shot down at a low altitude over his hometown Valjevo by two USAF F-16s. Whilst attempting to chase A raid returning after bombing the town. The falling aircraft was possibly hit as well by [[Strela 2]] fired by Yugoslav troops. Pavlović was killed.<ref name="Yugoslav"/> He was shot down by Michael H. Geczy of the 78th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Haulman |first=Daniel L. |date=2015 |title=The U.S. Air Force in the Air War Over Serbia, 1999 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26276597 |journal=[[Air Power History]] |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=6–21 |jstor=26276597 |issn=1044-016X }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Dimitrijević |first1=Bojan |url=https://archive.org/details/11-operation-allied-force-air-war-over-serbia-1999-volume-1/ |title=Operation Allied Force: Air War Over Serbia 1999 |last2=Draganić |first2=Jovica |publisher=Helion & Company |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-915113-35-1 |volume=1 |page=69}}</ref>

* On 11 May, an A-10 was lightly damaged over Kosovo by [[9K35 Strela-10|9K35 Strela 10]].<ref name="sponauer1"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=4 January 2021 |title=Kojim raketnim sistemima zameniti Strele u Vojsci Srbije? |url=https://tangosix.rs/2021/04/01/sa-kojim-raketnim-sistemima-zameniti-strele-u-vojsci-srbije/ |access-date=25 March 2022 |website=Tango Six |language=sr-RS |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118232014/https://tangosix.rs/2021/04/01/sa-kojim-raketnim-sistemima-zameniti-strele-u-vojsci-srbije/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* During the war NATO lost two [[AH-64 Apache]] strike helicopters (one on 26 April and the other on 4 May{{cn|date=February 2023}} in Albania near the border with Yugoslavia, in training accidents resulting in death of two US Army crew members.
* NATO reported that it lost 21 UAVs to technical failures or enemy action during the conflict, including at least seven German UAVs and five French UAVs. While the commander of the Yugoslav Third Army claimed that 21 NATO UAVs had been shot down by Yugoslav forces, another Yugoslav general claimed that Yugoslav air defences and ground forces had shot down 30 UAVs.{{sfn|Rip|Hasik|2002|p=411}} One of the preferred Yugoslav tactics to destroy hostile UAVs involved the use of transport helicopters in air-to-air combat role. The first [[IAI RQ-5 Hunter]] drone lost by the US Army in the campaign was apparently shot down by a [[Mil Mi-8|Mi-8 helicopter]] flying alongside, with the door gunner firing a 7.62&nbsp;mm machine gun. The manoeuvre was repeated several times until Allied air supremacy made this practice too dangerous.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Technological fundamentalism? Unmanned aerial vehicles in the conduct of the war|last=Futrell|first=Doris J.|publisher=Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University|year=2004|page=26|citeseerx = 10.1.1.564.3995}}</ref>

====Air defence suppression operations====
{{multiple image
 | width = 160
 | image1 = CBU-87 cluster bomb used in NATO aggression on Yugoslavia (bomb expired in 1997, used in 1999).jpg
 | alt1 = CBU-87 cluster bomb used in NATO aggression on Yugoslavia – bomb expired for 2 years
 | image2 = AGM-88 HARM shot down over Serbia - expired for 5 years (Belgrade Aviation Museum, Serbia).jpg
 | alt2 =  [[AGM-88 HARM]] shot down over Serbia – expired for 5 years
 | footer = Allegedly out of date NATO weapons used in bombing of Yugoslavia; [[CBU-87]] cluster bomb (left) and shot down [[AGM-88 HARM]] in Belgrade Aviation Museum
}}
[[Suppression of Enemy Air Defences]] (SEAD) operations for NATO were principally carried out by the US Air Force, with fifty [[General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon variants#F-16CJ/DJ Block 50D/52D|F-16CJ Block 50 Fighting Falcons]], and the US Navy and Marines, with 30 [[Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler|EA-6B Prowlers]].  The F-16CJs carried [[AGM-88 HARM]] [[anti-radiation missile]]s which would home in on and destroy any active Yugoslav radar systems, while the Prowlers provided [[Radar jamming and deception|radar jamming]] assistance (though they could carry HARMs as well). Additional support came in the form of Italian and German [[Tornado ECR]]s which also carried HARMs.

USAF [[Lockheed EC-130H Compass Call|Compass Call EC-130s]] were used to intercept and jam Yugoslav communications, while [[Boeing RC-135|RC-135s]] conducted [[bomb damage assessment]].

The standard tactic for F-16CJs was for two pairs to come at a suspected air defence site from opposite directions, ensuring total coverage of the target area, and relaying information to incoming strike craft so they could adjust their flight path accordingly.<ref name=KOSOVO10>Lambeth, Dr. Benjamin S. "Kosovo and the Continuing SEAD Challenge."  [[Air and Space Power Journal]]. Summer 2002. pp. 10–11</ref>

Where possible, NATO attempted to proactively destroy air defence sites, using F-16CGs and [[F-15E Strike Eagle]]s carrying conventional munitions including [[cluster bomb]]s, [[AGM-130]] boosted bombs, and [[AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon]] missiles.

Many NATO aircraft made use of new [[military deception|towed decoys]] designed to lure away any missiles fired at them. Reportedly, NATO also for the first time employed [[cyberwarfare]] to target Yugoslav air defence computer systems.<ref name="KOSOVO16">Lambeth, p. 16</ref>

A number of deficiencies in NATO's SEAD operations were revealed during the course of the bombing campaign. The EA-6Bs were noticeably slower than other aircraft, limiting their effectiveness in providing support, and land-based Prowlers flying out of [[Aviano Air Base]] were forced to carry extra fuel tanks instead of HARMs due to the distances involved.<ref name=KOSOVO10/> The F-16CJ Block 50 could not carry the [[LANTIRN]] targeting pod, making it unable to conduct precision bombing at night.<ref name=KOSOVO14>Lambeth, p. 14</ref> Moreover, the US Air Force had allowed its [[electronic warfare]] branch to atrophy in the years after the [[Gulf War]].  Training exercises were fewer and less rigorous than before, while veterans with electronic warfare experience were allowed to retire with no replacement. The results were less than satisfactory: response times to engaging a SAM threat actually increased from the Gulf War, and electronic warfare [[Wing (military aviation unit)|wings]] could no longer reprogram their own [[jamming pod]]s but had to send them elsewhere for the task.<ref name=KOSOVO17>Lambeth, p. 17</ref>

Further difficulties came in the form of airspace restrictions, which forced NATO aircraft into predictable flight paths, and [[rules of engagement]] which prevented NATO from targeting certain sites for fear of [[collateral damage]]. In particular this applied to early-warning radars located in Montenegro, which remained operational during the campaign and gave Yugoslav forces advanced warning of incoming NATO air raids.<ref name=KOSOVO9/><ref name=KOSOVO10/> Kosovo's mountainous terrain also made it difficult for NATO to locate and target Yugoslav air defences, while at the same time the region's poor infrastructure limited where Yugoslav SAM and AAA sites could be placed.<ref name=KOSOVO14/>

Yugoslav air defences were much fewer than what Iraq had deployed during the Gulf War – an estimated 16 [[SA-3]] and 25 [[SA-6]] [[surface-to-air missile]] systems, plus numerous [[anti-aircraft artillery]] (AAA) and man-portable air defence systems ([[MANPADS]]) – but unlike the Iraqis they took steps to preserve their assets.  Prior to the conflict's start Yugoslav SAMs were preemptively dispersed away from their garrisons and practiced [[EMCON|emission control]] to decrease NATO's ability to locate them.<ref name=KOSOVO9>Lambeth, p. 9</ref> The Yugoslav integrated air defence system (IADS) was extensive, including underground command sites and buried landlines, which allowed for information to be shared between systems. Active radar in one area could target NATO aircraft for SAMs and AAA in another area with no active radar, further limiting NATO's ability to target air defence weapons.<ref name=KOSOVO15>Lambeth, p. 15</ref> 
[[File:Defense.gov News Photo 990420-O-9999M-004.jpg|thumb|left|Pre- and post-strike images of destroyed [[Pristina]] radar facility.]]

During the course of the campaign, NATO and Yugoslav forces engaged in a "cat-and-mouse" game which made suppressing the air defences difficult. Yugoslav SAM operators would turn their radars on for no longer than 20 seconds, allowing little chance for NATO anti-radiation missions to lock on to their emissions.<ref name="KOSOVO16"/> While most Yugoslav SAMs were fired ballistically (with no radar guidance) at NATO aircraft, as many as a third were guided by radar, forcing the targeted aircraft to jettison fuel tanks and take evasive action.<ref name=KOSOVO11>Lambeth, p. 11</ref> In response, over half of NATO's anti-radiation missiles were preemptively fired at suspected air defence sites so that if a radar system did become active the missiles would be able to lock on more quickly.<ref name=KOSOVO14/>

Where possible, Yugoslav air defences attempted to bring NATO aircraft into range of AAA and MANPADS. A common tactic was to target the last aircraft in a departing formation, on the assumption that it received less protection, was flown by a less-experienced pilot, and/or was low on fuel needed to make evasive manoeuvres.<ref name=KOSOVO9/> However, because AAA were limited to deploying close to roads for mobility and became bogged down in difficult terrain, NATO pilots learned to avoid these by staying at least five kilometers away from roads, never flying along them and only crossing them at a perpendicular angle, though this made spotting ground traffic more difficult.<ref name=KOSOVO14/>

By focusing on their operational survival, Yugoslav air defences ceded a certain amount of air superiority to NATO forces. Yet the persistence of their credible SAM threat forced NATO to allocate greater resources to continued SEAD operations rather than conducting other missions, while Yugoslav AAA and MANPADS forced NATO aircraft to fly at {{convert|15000|ft|abbr=on}} or higher. NATO reportedly fired 743 HARMs during the course of the 78-day campaign, but could confirm the destruction of only 3 of the original 25 SA-6 batteries. Over 800 SAMs were fired by Yugoslav forces at NATO aircraft, including 477 SA-6s and 124 confirmed MANPADS, for the downing of only two aircraft and several more damaged.<ref name=KOSOVO16/>

According to a post-conflict US intelligence report, Yugoslav military had a spy in NATO's headquarters in Brussels who in the early part of the conflict leaked flight plans and target details to the Yugoslav military, allowing Yugoslav military assets to move to avoid detection. Once NATO limited the number of people with access to its plans, the effect on "what the Serbs appeared to know" was immediate. The identity and nationality of the suspected "spy" was not stated.<ref name="GUA2000">{{cite news |last1=Little |first1=Alan |last2=Norton-Taylor |first2=Richard |title=Nato spy leaked bombing raid plans to the Serbs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/09/balkans2 |access-date=22 June 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=9 March 2000 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204519/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/09/balkans2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==NATO forces==
While not directly related to the hostilities, on 12 March 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO by depositing instruments of accession in accordance with Article 10 of the [[North Atlantic Treaty]] at a ceremony in [[Independence, Missouri]].<ref name="The United States, NATO, and a New Multilateral Relationship"/> These nations did not participate directly in hostilities.

===Aviation===
A large element of the operation was the air forces of NATO, relying heavily on the US Air Force and Navy using the F-16, [[F-15]], [[F-117]], [[F-14]], [[McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet|F/A-18]], [[EA-6B]], [[B-52]], [[KC-135]], [[KC-10]], [[Airborne early warning and control|AWACS]], and [[JSTARS]] from bases throughout Europe and from aircraft carriers in the region.
[[File:F-117 Canopy (shot down over Serbia 1999, Museum of Aviation, Belgrade).jpg|thumb|Canopy of F-117 [[1999 F-117A shootdown|shot down]] by the [[Air Force of Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslav air force]] on 27 March 1999, near the village of [[Buđanovci]], Serbia]]

The French Navy and Air Force operated the [[Super Etendard]] and the [[Mirage 2000]]. The [[Aeronautica Militare|Italian Air Force]] operated with 34 [[Panavia Tornado|Tornado]], 12 [[F-104]], 12 [[AMX International AMX|AMX]], 2 [[B-707]], the [[Marina Militare|Italian Navy]] operated with [[Harrier II]]. The UK's Royal Air Force operated the [[RAF Harrier II|Harrier GR7]] and [[RAF Tornado GR1|Tornado]] ground attack jets as well as an array of support aircraft. [[Belgian Air Force|Belgian]], [[Royal Danish Air Force|Danish]], [[Royal Netherlands Air Force|Dutch]], [[Royal Norwegian Air Force|Norwegian]], [[Portuguese Air Force|Portuguese]] and [[Turkish Air Force|Turkish]] Air Forces operated F-16s. The Spanish Air Force deployed [[McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet|EF-18]]s and [[KC-130]]s. The [[Royal Canadian Air Force|Canadian Air Force]] deployed a total of 18 [[CF-18]]s, enabling them to be responsible for 10% of all bombs dropped in the operation.

The fighters were armed with both guided and unguided "dumb" munitions, including the [[Paveway]] series of laser-guided bombs.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} The bombing campaign marked the first time the German Air Force actively attacking targets since World War II.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Hyde-Price |first= Adrian |year= 2001 |chapter= Germany and the Kosovo War: Still a Civilian Power? |title= ''In Douglas Webber, ed., ''New Europe, New Germany, Old Foreign Policy?: German Foreign Policy Since Unification'', pp. 19–34'' |location= London and Portland, OR |publisher= Frank Cass |isbn= 978-0-714-65172-9 }} See p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0_utD3oQVdIC&pg=PA19 19].</ref>

The US [[B-2 Spirit]] stealth bomber saw its first successful combat role in Operation Allied Force, striking from its home base in the contiguous United States.{{fact|date=July 2024}}

Even with this air power, noted a RAND Corporation study, "NATO never fully succeeded in neutralising the enemy's radar-guided SAM threat".<ref>Lambeth, 2001, p.  xvi</ref>

===Space===
Operation Allied Force incorporated the first large-scale use of satellites as a direct method of weapon guidance. The collective bombing was the first combat use of the [[Joint Direct Attack Munition]] (JDAM) kit, which uses an [[Inertial guidance|inertial-guidance]] and [[GPS]]-guided tail fin to increase the accuracy of conventional gravity munitions up to 95%. The JDAM kits were outfitted on the [[B-2]]s. The [[AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon]] (JSOW) had been previously used in [[Operation Southern Watch]] earlier in 1999.

===Naval===
NATO naval forces operated in the Adriatic Sea. The [[Royal Navy]] sent a substantial task force that included the aircraft carrier {{HMS|Invincible|R05|6}}, which operated [[BAE Sea Harrier|Sea Harrier FA2]] fighter jets. The RN also deployed [[destroyer]]s and [[frigate]]s, and the [[Royal Fleet Auxiliary]] (RFA) provided support vessels, including the aviation training/primary casualty receiving ship {{ship|RFA|Argus|A135|6}}. It was the first time the RN used cruise missiles in combat, fired from the nuclear fleet submarine {{HMS|Splendid|S106|6}}.

The [[Italian Navy]] provided a naval task force that included the aircraft carrier {{ship|Italian aircraft carrier|Giuseppe Garibaldi|551|2}}, a frigate ({{ship|Italian frigate|Maestrale|F570|2}}) and a submarine ({{sclass|Sauro|submarine|4}}).

The [[United States Navy]] provided a naval task force that included the aircraft carrier USS ''Theodore Roosevelt'', {{USS|Vella Gulf|CG-72|6}}, and the amphibious assault ship {{USS|Kearsarge|LHD-3|6}}.

The [[French Navy]] provided the aircraft carrier {{ship|French aircraft carrier|Foch|R99|2}} and escorts. The [[German Navy]] deployed the frigate [[German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz (F209)|''Rheinland-Pfalz'']] and ''Oker'', an {{sclass|Oste|fleet service ship|1}}, in the naval operations.

The Netherlands sent the submarine {{HNLMS|Dolfijn|1990|6}} to uphold trade embargoes off the coast of Yugoslavia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sail.nl/schepen/marineschepen/onderzeeboten|title=Onderzeeboten|website=sail.nl|language=nl-NL|access-date=17 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330012330/https://sail.nl/schepen/marineschepen/onderzeeboten|archive-date=30 March 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Army===
[[File:Captured American Equipment, Belgrade.jpg|thumb|Equipment from a captured US Army peacekeeping patrol on the border between Macedonia and Kosovo, on display at the [[Military Museum, Belgrade|Military Museum]] in Belgrade]]
NATO ground forces included a US battalion from the [[505th Parachute Infantry Regiment]], [[82nd Airborne Division]]. The unit was deployed in March 1999 to Albania in support of the bombing campaign where the battalion secured the [[Tirana]] airfield, Apache helicopter refueling sites, established a forward-operating base to prepare for [[M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System|Multiple Launch Rocket System]] (MLRS) strikes and offensive ground operations, and deployed a small team with an [[AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar]] system to the Albania/Kosovo border where it acquired targets for NATO air strikes. Immediately after the bombing campaign, the battalion was refitted back at Tirana airfield and issued orders to move into Kosovo as the initial entry force in support of [[Operation Joint Guardian]].
[[Task Force Hawk]] was also deployed.

Task Force Hunter, a US surveillance unit based upon the [[IAI RQ-5 Hunter]] drone "A" Company from a Forces Command (FORSCOM) Corps Military Intelligence Brigade (MI Bde) was deployed to Camp Able Sentry, [[North Macedonia|Macedonia]], in March, to provide real-time intelligence on Yugoslav forces inside Kosovo. They flew a total of 246 sorties,{{cn|date=February 2023}} with five drones lost to enemy fire.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Conflict in the Balkans 1991–2000|last=Ripley|first=Tim|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2013|isbn=978-1846037481|pages=88}}</ref> A German Army drone battery based at [[Tetovo]] was tasked with a similar mission. German forces used [[Canadair CL-89|CL-289]] UAVs from December 1998 to July 1999 to fly 237 sorties over Yugoslav positions, with six drones lost to hostile fire.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=German Army upgrades CL-289 drones following Kosovo|journal=Jane's International Defence Review|volume=33|issue=1–6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/5226/german-cl_289-uav-makes-1000th-flight-(may-4).html|title=1,000th Flight of a German Reconnaissance Drone CL-289|website=defense-aerospace.com|access-date=24 March 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324224233/http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/5226/german-cl_289-uav-makes-1000th-flight-(may-4).html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
===Civilian casualties===
{{Main|Civilian casualties during Operation Allied Force}}
[[File:Kosovo uranium NATO bombing1999.png|thumb|Map showing sites in Kosovo and southern Central Serbia where NATO used munitions with depleted uranium]]

[[Human Rights Watch]] concluded "that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the ninety separate incidents in Operation Allied Force". Refugees were among the victims. Between 278 and 317 of the deaths, nearly 60 percent of the total number, were in Kosovo. In Serbia, 201 civilians were killed (five in Vojvodina) and eight died in Montenegro. Almost two-thirds (303 to 352) of the total registered civilian deaths occurred in twelve incidents where ten or more civilian deaths were confirmed.<ref name="hrw"/>

===Military casualties===
[[File:U-238 DU ammunition.JPG|thumb|[[Depleted uranium]] ammunition, fired in FR Yugoslavia in 1999]]

Military casualties on the NATO side were limited. According to official reports, the alliance suffered no fatalities from combat operations. However, on 5 May, an American AH-64 Apache crashed and exploded during a night-time mission in Albania.<ref name="washingtonpost"/><ref name="twodie"/> The Yugoslavs claimed they shot it down, but NATO claimed it crashed due to a technical malfunction. It crashed 40&nbsp;miles from Tirana,<ref name="NATO & America losses in Serbia 1999"/> killing the two crewmen, Army [[Chief Warrant Officer]]s David Gibbs and Kevin Reichert.<ref name="The lessons and non-lessons of the air and missile campaign in Kosovo"/> It was one of two Apache helicopters lost in the war.<ref>priest, Dana, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/29/014r-122999-idx.html "Army's Apache Helicopter Rendered Impotent in Kosovo"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620002543/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/29/014r-122999-idx.html |date=20 June 2017 }}, Washington Post, 29 December 1999. Retrieved 18 September 2015.</ref> A further three US soldiers were ambushed and taken as prisoners of war by Yugoslav special forces while riding on a [[Humvee]] on a surveillance mission along the Macedonian border with Kosovo.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Washingtonpost.com: Army Details Capture of 3 Soldiers |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/pows050899.htm |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref> A study of the campaign reports that Yugoslav air defences may have fired up to 700 missiles at NATO aircraft, and that the B-1 bomber crews counted at least 20 surface-to-air missiles fired at them during their first 50 missions.<ref name="The lessons and non-lessons of the air and missile campaign in Kosovo"/> Despite this, only two NATO manned aircraft (one [[F-16C]]<ref name="artofwar"/><ref name="Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia"/><ref name="Photos: General Dynamics F-16CG Night Falcon (401) Aircraft Pictures"/> and one [[F-117A Nighthawk]])<ref name="NATO plane downed"/><ref name="Photos: Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk Aircraft Pictures"/> were shot down.<ref name="frontline1"/> A further F-117A Nighthawk was damaged by hostile fire<ref name=moon/><ref name=das/> as were two [[A-10 Thunderbolt]] IIs.<ref name="A-10 Thunderbolt II DRAFT LISTING"/><ref name="81-0967 battle damaged in Kosovo during 1999"/> One AV-8B [[McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II|Harrier]] crashed in the Adriatic Sea due to technical failure.<ref name="Nato loses two planes"/> NATO also lost 25 UAVs, either due to enemy action or mechanical failure.<ref>Lambeth, 2001, p. 97</ref> Yugoslavia's 3rd Army commander, Lt. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, claimed that Yugoslav forces shot down 51 NATO aircraft, though no other source verified these numbers.<ref name=aubin2000 />

In 2013, Serbia's then-defence minister [[Aleksandar Vučić]] announced that the combined Yugoslav military and law enforcement casualties during the air campaign amounted to 956 killed and 52 missing. Vučić stated that 631 soldiers were killed and a further 28 went missing, and that 325 policemen were also among the dead with a further 24 listed as missing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.beta.rs/?tip=article&kategorija=vestiizzemlje&ida=2836237&id=&ime=|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130705234502/http://www.beta.rs/?tip=article&kategorija=vestiizzemlje&ida=2836237&id=&ime=|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 July 2013|trans-title=631 soldiers killed in NATO bombing|language=sh|location=Serbia|title=U NATO bombardovanju ubijen 631 vojnik|date=February 2013|quote='NATO snage su ubile 631 pripadnika Vojske Srbije, nestalo je 28, ukupno 659'|work=Beta}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|publisher=Radio Television of Serbia|title=Stradalo 1.008 vojnika i policajaca|trans-title=1,008 soldiers and policemen were killed|url=http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/9/Politika/1264384/Stradalo+1.008+vojnika+i+policajaca.html|date=11 February 2013|access-date=7 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105214010/http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/9/Politika/1264384/Stradalo+1.008+vojnika+i+policajaca.html|archive-date=5 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The government of Serbia also lists 5,173 combatants as having been wounded.<ref name="GroupedRef2"/><ref name="GroupedRef3"/> In early June 1999, while the bombing was still in progress, NATO officials claimed that 5,000 Yugoslav troops had been killed in the bombing and a further 10,000 wounded.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=BBC|title=Kosovo: The conflict by numbers|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/366981.stm|date=11 June 1999|access-date=7 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920215828/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/366981.stm|archive-date=20 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bideleux & Jeffries">{{cite book|last1=Bideleux|first1=Robert|last2=Jeffries|first2=Ian|title=The Balkans: A Post-Communist History|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-0-203-96911-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/balkanspostcommu0000bide/page/558 558]|url=https://archive.org/details/balkanspostcommu0000bide/page/558}}</ref><ref name="Chambers">{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay|title=The Oxford Companion to American Military History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-19-507198-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00cham/page/375 375]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00cham/page/375}}</ref> NATO later revised this estimation to 1,200 soldiers and policemen killed.<ref name="Coopersmith & Launius">{{cite book|last1=Coopersmith|first1=Jonathan|last2=Launius|first2=Roger D.|title=Taking Off: A Century of Manned Flight|publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics|year=2003|isbn=978-1-56347-610-5|page=54}}</ref>

Throughout the war; 181 NATO strikes were reported against tanks, 317 against armoured personnel vehicles, 800 against other military vehicles, and 857 against artillery and mortars,<ref>Lambeth, 2001, p. 86</ref> after a total of 38,000 sorties, or 200 sorties per day at the beginning of the conflict and over 1,000 at the end of the conflict.<ref>Lambeth, 2001, pp. 66–67.</ref> When it came to alleged hits, 93 tanks (out of 600),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Norton-Taylor |first1=Richard |title=How the Serb army escaped NATO |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/09/balkans1 |work=The Guardian |date=9 March 2000 |access-date=22 September 2019 |archive-date=25 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225040325/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/09/balkans1 |url-status=live }}</ref> 153 APCs, 339 other vehicles, and 389 artillery systems were believed to have been disabled or destroyed with certainty.<ref name="Op. Cit., Lambeth 2001: 86">Lambeth, p. 86</ref> The Department of Defence and Joint Chief of Staff had earlier provided a figure of 120 tanks, 220 APCs, and 450 artillery systems, and a Newsweek piece published around a year later stated that only 14 tanks, 12 self-propelled guns, 18 APCs, and 20 artillery systems had actually been obliterated,<ref name="Op. Cit., Lambeth 2001: 86"/> not that far from the Yugoslavs' own estimates of 13 tanks, 6 APCs, and 6 artillery pieces.<ref name=aubin2000>{{cite journal|last1=Aubin|first1=Stephen P.|title=Newsweek and the 14 Tanks|journal=Air Force-magazine.com|date=July 2000|volume=83|issue=7|url=http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2000/July%202000/0700newsweek.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116210408/http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2000/July%202000/0700newsweek.aspx|archive-date=16 November 2012|access-date=26 October 2016}}</ref> However, this reporting was heavily criticised, as it was based on the number of vehicles found during the assessment of the Munitions Effectiveness Assessment Team, which wasn't interested in the effectiveness of anything but the ordnance, and surveyed sites that hadn't been visited in nearly three-months, at a time when the most recent of strikes were four-weeks old.<ref name=aubin2000 /> The Yugoslav Air Force also sustained serious damage, with 121 aircraft destroyed (according to NATO).{{sfn|Bacevich|Cohen|2002|p=22}}

Operation Allied Force inflicted less damage on the Yugoslav military than originally thought due to the use of [[camouflage]] and decoys. "NATO hit a lot of dummy and deception targets. It's an old Soviet ploy. Officials in Europe are very subdued", noted a former senior NATO official in a post-war assessment of the damage.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Myers |first1=Steven Lee |title=Crisis in the Balkans: The Toll; Damage to Serb Military Less Than Expected |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/28/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-the-toll-damage-to-serb-military-less-than-expected.html |work=The New York Times |date=28 June 1999 |access-date=22 September 2019 |archive-date=22 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922053914/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/28/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-the-toll-damage-to-serb-military-less-than-expected.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Other misdirection techniques were used to disguise targets including replacing the batteries of fired missiles with mock-ups, as well as [[burning tires]] beside major bridges and painting roads in different colors to emit varying degrees of heat, thus guiding NATO missiles away from vital infrastructure.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fisk |first1=Robert |title=Liberation of Kosovo: Bomb Damage: How fake guns and painting the roads fooled NATO |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/liberation-of-kosovo-bomb-damage-how-fake-guns-and-painting-the-roads-fooled-nato-1101479.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/liberation-of-kosovo-bomb-damage-how-fake-guns-and-painting-the-roads-fooled-nato-1101479.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Independent |date=21 June 1999}}</ref> It was only in the later stages of the campaign that strategic targets such as bridges and buildings were attacked in any systematic way, causing significant disruption and economic damage. This stage of the campaign led to controversial incidents, most notably the bombing of the People's Republic of China embassy in Belgrade where three Chinese reporters were killed and twenty injured, which NATO claimed was a mistake.<ref name="Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"/>

[[File:Old Avala TV Tower.jpg|thumb|170px|Original [[Avala Tower]], one of the symbols of Belgrade, destroyed by NATO bombing]]
Relatives of [[Italian Armed Forces|Italian soldiers]] believe 50 of them have died since the war due to their exposure to depleted uranium weapons.<ref name="fraser"/> [[United Nations Environment Programme|UNEP]] tests found no evidence of harm by depleted uranium weapons, even among cleanup workers,<ref name="Depleted Uranium in Serbia and Montenegro: UNEP Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"/> but those tests and UNEP's report were questioned in an article in ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]''.<ref name="mondediplo"/>

===Damage and economic loss===
In April 1999, during the NATO bombing, officials in Yugoslavia said the damage from the bombing campaign cost around $100&nbsp;billion up to that time.<ref name="Nato hits Milosevic HQ">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/324708.stm | title=Nato hits Milosevic HQ | work=BBC News | date=21 April 1999 | access-date=20 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018070305/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/324708.stm | archive-date=18 October 2015 | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2000, a year after the bombing ended, [[G17 Plus|Group 17]] published a survey dealing with damage and economic restoration. The report concluded that direct damage from the bombing totalled $3.8&nbsp;billion, not including Kosovo, of which only 5% had been repaired at that time.<ref name="Dinkic">{{cite web | url=http://freeserb.home.xs4all.nl/interviews/2000/e-dinkic09072000.html | title=I would never join the government alone without my colleagues | publisher=Free Serbia | date=9 July 2000 | access-date=18 September 2015 | author=Dinkic, Mladjan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018070307/http://freeserb.home.xs4all.nl/interviews/2000/e-dinkic09072000.html | archive-date=18 October 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2006, a group of economists from the [[G17 Plus]] party estimated the total economic losses resulting from the bombing were about $29.6&nbsp;billion.<ref name="B92 7yearson">{{cite web | url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2006&mm=06&dd=09&nav_id=35250 | title=Seven years since end of NATO bombing | publisher=B92 | date=9 June 2006 | access-date=21 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926062106/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2006&mm=06&dd=09&nav_id=35250 | archive-date=26 September 2015 | url-status=live }}</ref> This figure included indirect economic damage, loss of [[human capital]], and loss of GDP.{{citation needed|reason=B92 does not say what was included|date=September 2015}}

The bombing caused damage to bridges, roads and railway tracks, as well as to 25,000 homes, 69 schools and 176 cultural monuments.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History for the IB Diploma Paper 1 Conflict and Intervention |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkQ3I6GyClEC&pg=PA29 |date=2016|page=166|isbn=978-1107560963|publisher=Cambridge University Press|last1= Wells |first1=Mike |last2= Fellows |first2=Nickn }}</ref> Furthermore, 19 hospitals and 20 health centers were damaged, including the [[University Hospital Center Dr Dragiša Mišović]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Bombardovanje 1999: Rođeni uz prve bombe o ratu ne znaju mnogo |url=https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/srbija-47710302 |access-date=24 March 2020 |publisher=BBC |date=17 April 1999 |archive-date=14 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914140203/https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/srbija-47710302 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=NATO bomb reportedly damages hospital, ambassadors' homes|url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/20/kosovo.03/ |access-date=24 March 2020 |publisher=CNN|date=20 May 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190917163802/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/20/kosovo.03/| archive-date=17 September 2019}}</ref>
NATO bombing also resulted in the damaging of medieval monuments, such as [[Gračanica Monastery]], the [[Patriarchate of Peć (monastery)|Patriarchate of Peć]] and the [[Visoki Dečani]], which are on the [[UNESCO]]'s [[World Heritage Site|World Heritage]] list today.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ćurčić|first=Slobodan|title=Destruction of Serbian Cultural Patrimony in Kosovo: A World-Wide Precedent?|journal=JNASSS|volume=14|issue=2|year=2000|pages=126–128|url=http://docplayer.net/45699705-Destruction-of-serbian-cultural-patrimony-in-kosovo-a-world-wide-precedent.html|access-date=24 March 2020|archive-date=4 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304025738/http://docplayer.net/45699705-Destruction-of-serbian-cultural-patrimony-in-kosovo-a-world-wide-precedent.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Avala Tower]], one of the most popular symbols of [[Belgrade]], Serbia's capital, was destroyed during the bombing.<ref>{{cite news|title=Belgrade Reopens Avala TV Tower|url=https://balkaninsight.com/2010/04/21/belgrade-reopens-avala-tv-tower/|access-date=24 March 2020|publisher=Balkan Insight|date=21 April 2010|archive-date=24 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200324114546/https://balkaninsight.com/2010/04/21/belgrade-reopens-avala-tv-tower/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The use of [[Depleted Uranium]] ammunition was noted by the [[UNEP]], which cautioned about the risks for future [[groundwater contamination]] and recounted the "decontamination measures conducted by Yugoslavian, Serbian and Montenegrin authorities."<ref name="unep02">{{cite news |title=Depleted uranium in Serbia and Montenegro: post-conflict assessment in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia |url=https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/handle/20.500.11822/8251 |publisher=United Nations Environment Programme |date=2002}}</ref> In total, between 9 and 11 tonnes of depleted uranium munitions were dropped across all of Yugoslavia, with payloads delivered by A-10 Thunderbolts and Tomahawk cruise missiles. In 2001, a study of uranium content across soil samples across Yugoslavia discovered highest concentration at Cape Arza, an area of land at the entrance to the [[Bay of Kotor]].<ref name="Miljevicetal2001"/> Between 90 and 120 kilograms of depleted uranium was dropped on Cape Arza, despite the location being abandoned since World War One.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vukotić |first1=Pero |last2=Anđelić |first2=Tomislav |last3=Zekić |first3=Ranko |last4=Kovačević |first4=Miljko |last5=Vasić |first5=Vladimir |last6=Savić |first6=Slobodan |title=Radiation Survey and Decontamination of Cape Arza from Depleted Uranium |journal=Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection |date=2003 |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=51-56 |doi=10.2298/NTRP0302051V |url=https://doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?id=1451-39940302051V |access-date=31 March 2024|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=NATO leaves Montenegro with a deadly legacy |url=https://www.theage.com.au/world/nato-leaves-montenegro-with-a-deadly-legacy-20020903-gdujx9.html |access-date=31 March 2024 |work=New York Times |date=3 September 2002}}</ref> 

===Political outcome===
In early June, a Finnish-Russian mediation team headed by [[Martti Ahtisaari]] and [[Viktor Chernomyrdin]] traveled to Belgrade to meet with Milošević for talks on an agreement that would suspend air strikes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Why Milosevic blinked first |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/06/balkans |work=The Guardian |date=6 June 1999 |access-date=19 April 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804152309/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/06/balkans |url-status=live }}</ref> When NATO agreed Kosovo would be politically supervised by the United Nations, and that there would be no independence referendum for three years, the Yugoslav government agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosovo, under strong diplomatic pressure from Russia, and the bombing was suspended on 10 June.<ref name='A1'>{{cite news |title=NATO bombs Yugoslavia |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nato-bombs-yugoslavia |access-date=18 February 2019  |publisher=history.com |date=21 July 2010 |archive-date=4 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904190957/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nato-bombs-yugoslavia |url-status=live }}</ref> The Yugoslav Army and NATO signed the [[Kumanovo Agreement]]. Its provisions were considerably less draconian than what was presented at Rambouillet, most notably Appendix B was removed from the agreement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hehir |first1=Aidan |title=Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction |date=2013 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-13730-157-4 |page=232 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jsdBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Appendix B called for NATO forces to have free movement and to conduct military operations within the entire territory of Yugoslavia (including Serbia). The Yugoslav government had used it as a primary reason why they had not signed the Rambouillet accords, viewing it as a threat to its sovereignty.{{sfn|Bacevich|Cohen|2002|pp=78–79}}

{{Multiple image
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 |width     =
 |image1    = Spomenik djeci, žrtvama NATO bombardiranja SRJ 1999.JPG
 |width1    = 229
 |alt1      =
 |caption1  = A monument to the children killed in the NATO bombing located in [[Tašmajdan Park]], [[Belgrade]], featuring a bronze sculpture of [[Milica Rakić]]
 |image2    = Park prijateljstva - panoramio (1).jpg
 |width2    = 229
 |alt2      =
 |caption2  = [[Eternal Flame (Belgrade)|Eternal Flame]] in Belgrade, memorial to the military and civilian victims of the NATO bombing
 |image3    = Споменик херојима са Кошара 2.jpg
 |width3    = 175
 |alt3      =
 |caption3  = [[Battle of Košare|Monument to the Košare Heroes]], [[Belgrade]]
}}
The war ended 11 June, and Russian paratroopers seized [[Slatina airport]] to become the first peacekeeping force in the war zone.<ref name="First planes land at Pristina airport"/>
As British troops were still massed on the Macedonian border, planning to enter Kosovo at 5:00&nbsp;am, the Serbs were hailing the Russian arrival as proof the war was a UN operation, not a NATO operation.<ref name='A1'/> After hostilities ended on 12 June, the US Army's 82nd Airborne, 2–505th Parachute Infantry Regiment entered Kosovo as part of Operation Joint Guardian.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee Myers |first1=Steven |title=Crisis in the Balkans: Checkpoint; Minimum Use of Force, And Maximum Confusion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/14/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-checkpoint-minimum-use-of-force-and-maximum-confusion.html |access-date=25 February 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=14 June 1999 |archive-date=25 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225223728/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/14/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-checkpoint-minimum-use-of-force-and-maximum-confusion.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Yugoslav President Milošević survived the conflict, however, he was indicted for war crimes by the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]] along with a number of other senior Yugoslav political and military figures.<ref name='A2'>{{cite web |title=United Nations Case Information Sheet |url=http://www.icty.org/case/slobodan_milosevic/4#ind |website=United Nations {{!}} International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=19 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219174348/http://www.icty.org/case/slobodan_milosevic/4#ind |url-status=live }}</ref> His indictment led to Yugoslavia as a whole being treated as a pariah by much of the international community because Milošević was subject to arrest if he left Yugoslavia.<ref name='A1'/> The country's economy was badly affected by the conflict, and in addition to electoral fraud, this was a factor in [[Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević|the overthrow of Milošević]].<ref name='A1'/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Dobbs |first1=Michael |title=U.S. Advice Guided Milosevic Opposition |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/12/11/us-advice-guided-milosevic-opposition/ba9e87e5-bdca-45dc-8aad-da6571e89448/ |access-date=25 February 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=11 December 2000 |archive-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524024001/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/12/11/us-advice-guided-milosevic-opposition/ba9e87e5-bdca-45dc-8aad-da6571e89448/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Thousands were killed during the conflict, and hundreds of thousands more fled from the province to other parts of the country and to the surrounding countries.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tweedie |first1=Neil |title=Kosovo War: Thousands killed as Serb forces tried to keep control of province |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/kosovo/5084374/Kosovo-War-Thousands-killed-as-Serb-forces-tried-to-keep-control-of-province.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/kosovo/5084374/Kosovo-War-Thousands-killed-as-Serb-forces-tried-to-keep-control-of-province.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=25 February 2019 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=31 March 2009}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Most of the Albanian refugees returned home within a few weeks or months. However, much of the non-Albanian population again fled to other parts of Serbia or to protected enclaves within Kosovo following the operation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|date=August 1999|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902070934/http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/|archive-date=2 September 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Pristina Serbs prepare for exodus|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/10/2|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=10 June 1999|access-date=15 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230002921/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/10/2|archive-date=30 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Serbs Follow Yugoslav Forces Out of Kosovo in Reverse Exodus|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jun-13-mn-46216-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=13 June 1999|access-date=5 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005214554/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jun/13/news/mn-46216|archive-date=5 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Crisis in the Balkans: Exodus; As NATO Pours In, Fearful Serbs Pour Out|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/14/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-exodus-as-nato-pours-in-fearful-serbs-pour-out.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=14 June 1999|access-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724011720/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/14/world/crisis-in-the-balkans-exodus-as-nato-pours-in-fearful-serbs-pour-out.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=NATO Fears Serb Exodus After Killings|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/07/25/nato-fears-serb-exodus-after-killings/6b882bb4-e263-420f-9c05-1b42c9314841/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=25 July 1999|access-date=5 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180525064009/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/07/25/nato-fears-serb-exodus-after-killings/6b882bb4-e263-420f-9c05-1b42c9314841/|archive-date=25 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Albanian guerrilla activity spread into other parts of Serbia and to the neighbouring Republic of Macedonia, but subsided in 2001.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rebels, ideas clash in Macedonia Renewed fighting comes after unity government formed |url=http://www.cnn.com/2001/fyi/news/05/09/macedonia/index.html |access-date=25 February 2019 |publisher=CNN |date=9 May 2001 |archive-date=30 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210530221337/http://www.cnn.com/2001/fyi/news/05/09/macedonia/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The non-Albanian population has since diminished further following fresh outbreaks of inter-communal conflict and harassment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vladisavljevic |first1=Nebojsa |title=Kosovo and Two Dimensions of the Contemporary Serb-Albanian Conflict |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268575235 |website=researchgate |access-date=25 February 2019}}</ref>

In December 2002, [[Elizabeth II]] approved the awarding of the [[Battle Honour]] "Kosovo" to squadrons of the RAF that participated in the conflict. These were: Nos [[No. 1 Squadron RAF|1]], [[No. 7 Squadron RAF|7]], [[No. 8 Squadron RAF|8]], [[No. 9 Squadron RAF|9]], [[No. 14 Squadron RAF|14]], [[No. 23 Squadron RAF|23]], [[No. 31 Squadron RAF|31]], [[No. 51 Squadron RAF|51]], [[No. 101 Squadron RAF|101]], and [[No. 216 Squadron RAF|216]] squadrons.<ref>{{cite web |title=British Military Aviation in 1999 |url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1999.aspx |website=rafmuseum |publisher=rafmuseum.org.uk |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=25 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225224218/https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1999.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Honours and Awards in the Armed Forces |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/393534/jsp-761-honours-awards-in-the-armed-forces.pdf |website=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |publisher=Ministry of Defense |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=26 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226045913/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/393534/jsp-761-honours-awards-in-the-armed-forces.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This was also extended to the Canadian squadrons deployed to the operation, [[No. 425 Squadron RCAF|425]] and [[No. 441 Squadron RCAF|441]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=A. Halliday |first1=Hugh |title=Canada's Air Force in War and Peace |url=https://www.warmuseum.ca/learn/dispatches/canadas-air-force-in-war-and-peace/#tabs |website=warmuseum |publisher=warmuseum.ca |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=25 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225223947/https://www.warmuseum.ca/learn/dispatches/canadas-air-force-in-war-and-peace/#tabs |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ten years after the operation, the Republic of Kosovo [[2008 Kosovo declaration of independence|declared independence]] with a new Republic of Kosovo government.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rezaian |first1=Jason |title=10 years after independence, Kosovo's prime minister asks Washington for help with 'unfinished business' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/17/10-years-after-independence-kosovos-pm-asks-washington-for-help-with-unfinished-business/ |access-date=25 February 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=17 February 2017 |archive-date=17 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117002509/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/17/10-years-after-independence-kosovos-pm-asks-washington-for-help-with-unfinished-business/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===KFOR===
{{Main|Kosovo Force}}
On 12 June, [[Kosovo Force|KFOR]] began entering Kosovo. Its mandate among other things was to deter hostilities and establish a secure environment, including public safety and civil order.<ref name="Weitz">{{cite book |last1=Weitz |first1=Richard |title=War and Governance: International Security in a Changing World Order |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-31334-735-1 |page=128 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGf_OkWDAbsC&pg=PA128 |access-date=4 June 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171651/https://books.google.com/books?id=EGf_OkWDAbsC&pg=PA128 |url-status=live }}</ref>

KFOR, a NATO force, had been preparing to conduct combat operations, but in the end, its mission was only peacekeeping. It was based upon the [[Allied Rapid Reaction Corps]] headquarters commanded by then Lieutenant General [[Mike Jackson (British Army officer)|Mike Jackson]] of the [[British Army]]. It consisted of British forces (a brigade built from 4th Armoured and 5th Airborne Brigades), a [[French Army]] Brigade, a [[German Army]] brigade, which entered from the west while all the other forces advanced from the south, and [[Italian Army]] and US Army brigades.
[[File:German KFOR troops patrol southern Kosovo, summer 1999.jpg|thumb|German [[Kosovo Force|KFOR]] soldiers patrol southern Kosovo]]

The US contribution, known as the Initial Entry Force, was led by the US [[1st Armored Division (United States)|1st Armoured Division]]. Subordinate units included TF 1–35 Armour from Baumholder, Germany, the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the [[26th Marine Expeditionary Unit]] from [[Camp Lejeune]], [[North Carolina]], the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment from Schweinfurt, Germany, and Echo Troop, 4th Cavalry Regiment, also from Schweinfurt, Germany. Also attached to the US force was the [[Greek Army]]'s 501st Mechanised Infantry Battalion. The initial US forces established their area of operation around the towns of Uroševac, the future [[Camp Bondsteel]], and Gnjilane, at [[Camp Monteith]], and spent four months – the start of a stay which continues to date – establishing order in the southeast sector of Kosovo.

The first NATO troops to enter Pristina on 12 June 1999 were Norwegian special forces from the [[Forsvarets Spesialkommando]] (FSK) and soldiers from the British [[Special Air Service]] 22 S.A.S, although to NATO's diplomatic embarrassment Russian troops arrived first at the airport. The Norwegian soldiers from FSK were the first to come in contact with the Russian troops at the airport. FSK's mission was to level the negotiating field between the belligerent parties, and to fine-tune the detailed, local deals needed to implement the peace deal between the Serbians and the Kosovo Albanians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.norli.no/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&catalogId=10051&categoryId=&productId=1085065&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&urlLangId=-101&langId=-101&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10651|title=Krigere og diplomater|website=Norli.no|access-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307042943/http://www.norli.no/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplay?catalogid=10051&categoryid=&errorviewname=productdisplayerrorview&langid=-101&parent_category_rn=&productid=1085065&storeid=10651&top_category=&urllangid=-101&urlrequesttype=base|archive-date=7 March 2016|url-status=dead|language=no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.norli.no/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&catalogId=10051&categoryId=&productId=286391&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&urlLangId=-101&langId=-101&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10651|title=Norges hemmelige krigere|website=norli.no|access-date=26 October 2016|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421051414/http://www.norli.no/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&catalogId=10051&categoryId=&productId=286391&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&urlLangId=-101&langId=-101&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10651|archive-date=21 April 2014|language=no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/montenegro/britisk-og-norske-soldater-i-pristina/a/3978724|title=Britisk og norske soldater i Pristina – Montenegro – VG|newspaper=Vg.no|date=12 June 1999|access-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024223014/http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/montenegro/britisk-og-norske-soldater-i-pristina/a/3978724/|archive-date=24 October 2016|url-status=live|language=no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/norske-elitesoldater-skamroses/a/6450899|title=Norske elitesoldater skamroses|newspaper=Vg.no|date=3 March 2000|access-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024153321/http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/norske-elitesoldater-skamroses/a/6450899/|archive-date=24 October 2016|url-status=live|language=no}}</ref>

During the initial incursion, US soldiers were greeted by Albanians cheering and throwing flowers as US soldiers and KFOR rolled through their villages.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} Although no resistance was met, three US soldiers from the Initial Entry Force were killed in accidents.<ref name="specialist"/>

Following the military campaign, the involvement of Russian peacekeepers proved to be tense and challenging to the NATO Kosovo force. The Russians expected to have an independent sector of Kosovo, only to be unhappily surprised with the prospect of operating under NATO command. Without prior communication or coordination with NATO, Russian peacekeeping forces entered Kosovo from Bosnia and seized [[Pristina International Airport Adem Jashari|Pristina International Airport]].{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}

In 2010, [[James Blunt]] in an interview described how his unit was given the assignment of securing the Pristina in advance of the 30,000-strong peacekeeping force and the Russian army had moved in and taken control of the airport before his unit's arrival. As the first officer on the scene, Blunt shared a part in the difficult task of addressing the [[Incident at Pristina airport|potentially violent international incident]]. His own account tells of how he refused to follow orders from NATO command to attack the Russians.<ref name="Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'"/>

[[Outpost Gunner]] was established on a high point in the Preševo Valley by Echo Battery 1/161 Field Artillery in an attempt to monitor and assist with peacekeeping efforts in the Russian sector. Operating under the support of 2/3 Field Artillery, 1st Armoured Division, the Battery was able to successfully deploy and continuously operate a Firefinder Radar which allowed the NATO forces to keep a closer watch on activities in the sector and the Preševo Valley. Eventually a deal was struck whereby Russian forces operated as a unit of KFOR but not under the NATO command structure.<ref name="bbc-airport"/>

==Attitudes towards the campaign==
{{Main|Legitimacy of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia}}

===In favor of the campaign===
[[File:Kop mine mines.jpg|thumb|Warning sign about NATO [[cluster bombs]] near ski slopes at [[Kopaonik]]]]
Those who were involved in the NATO airstrikes have stood by the decision to take such action. US President [[Bill Clinton]]'s [[Secretary of Defense (United States)|Secretary of Defense]], [[William Cohen]], said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide."<ref name="defenselink"/> On CBS' ''Face the Nation'' Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing. ... They may have been murdered."<ref name="washingtonpost8"/> Clinton, citing the same figure, spoke of "at least 100,000 (Kosovar Albanians) missing".<ref name="clintonfoundation"/> Later, Clinton said about Yugoslav elections, "they're going to have to come to grips with what Mr. Milošević ordered in Kosovo. ... They're going to have to decide whether they support his leadership or not; whether they think it's OK that all those tens of thousands of people were killed. ..."<ref name="autogenerated1999"/> In the same press conference, Clinton also said, "NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide."<ref name="autogenerated1999"/> Clinton compared the events of Kosovo to [[the Holocaust]]. CNN reported, "Accusing Serbia of 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo similar to the genocide of Jews in World War II, an impassioned Clinton sought Tuesday to rally public support for his decision to send US forces into combat against Yugoslavia, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely with the breakdown of a diplomatic peace effort."<ref name="cnn9"/>

President Clinton's [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] also claimed Yugoslav troops had committed genocide. ''The New York Times'' reported, "the Administration said evidence of 'genocide' by Serbian forces was growing to include 'abhorrent and criminal action' on a vast scale. The language was the State Department's strongest up to that time in denouncing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević."<ref name="genocide"/> The Department of State also gave the highest estimate of dead Albanians. In May 1999, Defence Secretary William Cohen suggested that there might be up to 100,000 Albanian fatalities."<ref name="erlanger"/> Post-war examinations revealed these statements and casualty figures to have been exaggerated.<ref>{{cite web | last=Pilger | first=John | date=4 September 2000 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/node/151946 | title=US and British officials told us that at least 100,000 were murdered in Kosovo. A year later, fewer than 3,000 bodies have been found | work=[[New Statesman]] | access-date=29 August 2019 | archive-date=4 May 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504061509/https://www.newstatesman.com/node/151946 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | first1=Daniel | last1=Pearl | first2=Robert | last2=Block | date=31 December 1999 | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB946593838546941319 | title=Despite Tales, the War in Kosovo Was Savage, but Wasn't Genocide | work=The Wall Street Journal | access-date=29 August 2019 | archive-date=17 January 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117060241/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB946593838546941319 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Five months after the conclusion of NATO bombing, when around one third of reported gravesites had been visited thus far, 2,108 bodies had been found, with an estimated total of between 5,000 and 12,000 at that time;<ref name="bbc"/> Yugoslav forces had systematically concealed grave sites and moved bodies.<ref>{{cite book|last= Judah|title= The Serbs|publisher= Yale University Press|isbn= 978-0-300-15826-7|year= 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Serbia's Kosovo Cover-Up: Who Hid the Bodies?|url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-s-kosovo-cover-up-who-hid-the-bodies|publisher=Balkan Insight|access-date=10 June 2015|quote=The Belgrade officials and policemen who took hundreds of murdered Albanians' corpses from Kosovo to Serbia and concealed them in mass graves have never been prosecuted in their home country.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527044033/http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-s-kosovo-cover-up-who-hid-the-bodies|archive-date=27 May 2015|url-status=live|date=23 April 2015}}</ref> Since the war's end, after most of the mass graves had been searched, the body count has remained less than half of the estimated 10,000 plus. It is unclear how many of these were victims of war crimes.<ref name="Andreas & Greenhill">{{cite book |last1=Andreas |first1=Peter |last2=Greenhill |first2=Kelly M. |title=Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-80145-706-7 |pages=152–154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HmkhqVRxVNIC&pg=PA152 |access-date=10 May 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171646/https://books.google.com/books?id=HmkhqVRxVNIC&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[United States House of Representatives]] passed a [[concurrent resolution|non-binding resolution]] on 11 March 1999 by a vote of 219–191 conditionally approving of President Clinton's plan to commit 4,000 troops to the NATO peacekeeping mission.<ref name="nytimes"/> In late April, the House Appropriations Committee approved $13&nbsp;billion in emergency spending to cover the cost of the air war, but a second non-binding resolution approving of the mission failed in the full House by a vote of 213–213.<ref name="nytimes10"/> The [[United States Senate|Senate]] had passed the second resolution in late March by a vote of 58–41.<ref name="On the Concurrent Resolution (S.Con.Res. 21 )"/>

===Criticism of the campaign===
There has also been criticism of the campaign. The Clinton administration and NATO officials were accused of inflating the number of Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbs.<ref name="washington"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Steele |first1=Jonathan |title=Serb killings 'exaggerated' by west |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/18/balkans3 |work=The Guardian |date=18 August 2000 |access-date=13 September 2019 |archive-date=6 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006075344/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/18/balkans3 |url-status=live }}</ref> The media watchdog group [[Accuracy in Media]] charged the alliance with distorting the situation in Kosovo and lying about the number of civilian deaths to justify US involvement in the conflict.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Irvine |first1=Reed |last2=Kincaid |first2=Cliff |title=Deceit And Lies Over Kosovo |url=https://www.aim.org/media-monitor/deceit-and-lies-over-kosovo/ |website=aim.org |publisher=Accuracy in Media |date=24 November 1999 |access-date=13 September 2019 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329010712/https://www.aim.org/media-monitor/deceit-and-lies-over-kosovo/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Other journalists have asserted that NATO's campaign triggered or accelerated the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, which was the opposite of the alliance's stated aim, as prior to it Yugoslav forces limited their activities.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Layne |first1=Christopher |last2=Schwarz |first2=Benjamin |title=Was It A Mistake? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-03/26/081r-032600-idx.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=26 March 2000 |access-date=25 March 2022 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204234412/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-03/26/081r-032600-idx.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Cockburn |first1=Alexander |title=Where's the Evidence of Genocide of Kosovar Albanians? |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-oct-29-me-27493-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=29 October 1999 |access-date=25 March 2022 |archive-date=20 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520115333/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-oct-29-me-27493-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bancroft |first1=Ian |title=Serbia's anniversary is a timely reminder |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/24/serbia-kosovo |work=The Guardian |date=24 March 2009 |access-date=25 March 2022 |archive-date=1 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501162102/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/24/serbia-kosovo |url-status=live }}</ref>

In an interview with Radio-Television Serbia journalist Danilo Mandić on 25 April 2006, [[Noam Chomsky]] referred to the foreword to John Norris' 2005 book ''Collision Course: NATO, Russia, and Kosovo'', in which [[Strobe Talbott]], the Deputy Secretary of State under President Clinton and the leading US negotiator during the war, had written that "It was Yugoslavia's resistance to the broader trends of political and economic reform{{snd}}not the plight of Kosovar Albanians{{snd}}that best explains NATO's war."<ref>[https://chomsky.info/20060425 On the NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Danilo Mandic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220200424/http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20060425.htm|date=20 February 2014}} Chomsky.info, 25 April 2006. Retrieved 30 March 2022.<br />For the passage Chomsky was referring to, see pp.xxii–iii of the introduction to Norris's book: "As nations throughout the region sought to reform their economies, mitigate ethnic tensions, and broaden civil society, Belgrade seemed to delight in continually moving in the opposite direction ... It was Yugoslavia's resistance to the broader trends of political and economic reform{{snd}}not the plight of Kosovar Albanians{{snd}}that best explains NATO's war."</ref> On 31 May 2006, [[J. Bradford DeLong|Brad DeLong]] rebutted Chomsky and quoted from elsewhere in the passage which Chomsky had cited,<ref name=faaavag /> "the Kosovo crisis was fueled by frustration with Milošević and the legitimate fear that instability and conflict might spread further in the region" and also that "Only a decade of death, destruction, and Milošević brinkmanship pushed NATO to act when the Rambouillet talks collapsed. Most of the leaders of NATO's major powers were proponents of 'third way' politics and headed socially progressive, economically centrist governments. None of these men were particularly hawkish, and Milošević did not allow them the political breathing room to look past his abuses."<ref name=faaavag>[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/05/on_the_nato_bom.html On the NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia...] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115060201/http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/05/on_the_nato_bom.html |date=15 January 2014 }}, Brad DeLong, 31 May 2006. Retrieved 13 January 2014</ref><ref name="collision"/>

[[File:Графити на новосадским улицама током Нато бомбардовања СР Југославија.jpeg|thumb|Anti-NATO graffiti on a wall during the bombing of Novi Sad]]
The [[United Nations Charter]] does not allow military interventions in other sovereign countries with few exceptions which, in general, need to be decided upon by the [[United Nations Security Council]]. The issue was brought before the UNSC by Russia, in a draft resolution which, inter-alia, would affirm "that such unilateral use of force constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter". China, Namibia and Russia voted for the resolution, the other members against, thus it failed to pass.<ref name="Security Council Rejects Demand for Cessation of Use of Force Against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"/><ref name="Dead link"/>{{dead link|date=October 2016}} [[William Blum]] wrote that "Nobody has ever suggested that Serbia had attacked or was preparing to attack a member state of NATO, and that is the only event which justifies a reaction under the NATO treaty."<ref>{{Cite book |title=America's Deadliest Export: Democracy The Truth About US Foreign Policy and Everything Else |author=William Blum |publisher=Zed Books |page=156}}</ref>

Prime Minister of India [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]] condemned the NATO bombing, and demanded a halt on the airstrikes and for the matter to be taken up by the United Nations. Since Yugoslavia was part of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], he announced that he would raise the issue at the forum. At a speech in a political rally in May 1999, Vajpayee said that "NATO is blindly bombing Yugoslavia" and "There is a dance of destruction going on there [Yugoslavia]. Thousands of people rendered homeless. And the United Nations is a mute witness to all this. Is NATO's work to prevent war or to fuel one?"<ref>Pradhan, Sharat. [https://www.rediff.com/news/1999/mar/29nato.htm Vajpayee condemns NATO war in Kosovo]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118134331/https://www.rediff.com/news/1999/mar/29nato.htm |date=18 November 2008}}. ''[[Rediff]]'', 29 March 1999.</ref><ref>Faiola, Anthony. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/anger051899.htm Yugoslavia Air Campaign Ignites Anti-U.S. Sentiment]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315020414/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/anger051899.htm|date=15 March 2018}}. ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 18 May 1999.</ref>

Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs [[Ariel Sharon]] criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia as an act of "brutal interventionism" and said Israel was against "aggressive actions" and "hurting innocent people" and hoped "the sides will return to the negotiating table as soon as possible".<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/ariel-sharon-by-robert-fisk-521809.html Ariel Sharon... by Robert Fisk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926002449/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/ariel-sharon-by-robert-fisk-521809.html |date=26 September 2015 }} Friday 6 January 2006, ''The Independent''</ref>

On 29 April 1999, Yugoslavia filed a complaint at the [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ) at [[The Hague]] against ten NATO member countries (Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United States) and alleged that the military operation had violated Article 9 of the 1948 Genocide Convention and that Yugoslavia had jurisdiction to sue through Article 38, para. 5 of Rules of Court.<ref>[http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/114/7173.pdf International Court of Justice – 7173] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115040939/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/114/7173.pdf |date=15 January 2014 }} Accessed 13 January 2013</ref> On 2 June, the ICJ ruled in an 8–4 vote that Yugoslavia had no such jurisdiction.<ref name=nojurisdict>[http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/amato1.htm Review of the ICJ Order of 2 June 1999 on the Illegality of Use of Force Case] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218054226/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/amato1.htm |date=18 February 2011 }} Anthony D'Amato:Leighton Professor of Law, Northwest University, 2 June 1999. Retrieved 13 January 2014</ref> Four of the ten nations (the United States, France, Italy and Germany) had withdrawn entirely from the court's "optional clause." Because Yugoslavia filed its complaint only three days after accepting the terms of the court's optional clause, the ICJ ruled that there was no jurisdiction to sue either Britain or Spain, as the two nations had only agreed to submit to ICJ lawsuits if a suing party had filed their complaint a year or more after accepting the terms of the optional clause.<ref name=nojurisdict /> Despite objections that Yugoslavia had legal jurisdiction to sue Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Portugal,<ref name=nojurisdict /> the ICJ majority vote also determined that the NATO bombing was an instance of "humanitarian intervention" and thus did not violate Article 9 of the Genocide Convention.<ref name=nojurisdict />

[[File:Building of Radio Television of Serbia bombed-out in 1999 03.jpg|thumb|right|[[Amnesty International]] described the [[NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters|bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters]] as a [[war crime]]]]
[[Amnesty International]] released a report which stated that NATO forces had deliberately targeted a civilian object ([[NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters]]), and had bombed targets at which civilians were certain to be killed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/no-justice-victims-nato-bombings-20090423|publisher=[[Amnesty International]]|date=23 April 2009|title=No justice for the victims of NATO bombings|access-date=4 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217051002/http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/no-justice-victims-nato-bombings-20090423|archive-date=17 February 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/08/world/rights-group-says-nato-bombing-in-yugoslavia-violated-law.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Rights Group Says NATO Bombing in Yugoslavia Violated Law|author=Steven Erlanger|date=8 June 2000|access-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223162203/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/08/world/rights-group-says-nato-bombing-in-yugoslavia-violated-law.html|archive-date=23 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The report was rejected by NATO as "baseless and ill-founded". A week before the report was released, [[Carla Del Ponte]], the chief prosecutor for the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] had told the [[United Nations Security Council]] that her investigation into NATO actions found no basis for charging NATO or its leaders with war crimes.<ref name="chicagotribune"/>

A majority of US House Republicans voted against two resolutions, both of which expressed approval for American involvement in the NATO mission.<ref name="FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 49"/><ref name="FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 103"/>

Moscow criticised the bombing as a breach of international law and a challenge to Russia's status.<ref>Derek Averre, "From Pristina to Tskhinvali: The Legacy of Operation Allied Force in Russia's Relations with the West," ''International Affairs'' 85#3 (2009), pp. 575–591 {{jstor|27695032}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322102746/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27695032 |date=22 March 2017 }}</ref>

About 2,000 [[Serbian Americans]] and [[Anti-war movement|anti-war activists]] protested in New York City against NATO airstrikes, while more than 7,000 people protested in [[Sydney]].<ref name=BBC_1999>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/305185.stm|title=World: Europe Greeks protest at Nato strikes|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=5 May 2020|archive-date=17 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417223404/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/305185.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Substantial protests [[Reaction in Greece to the Yugoslav Wars|were held]] in Greece, and demonstrations were also held in Italian cities, Moscow, London, Toronto, Berlin, [[Timișoara]], [[Stuttgart]], Salzburg and [[Skopje]].<ref name=BBC_1999/>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Legitimacy of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]]
* [[List of NATO bombings]]
* [[Operation Deliberate Force]]
* [[Operation Horseshoe]]
* [[Responsibility to protect]]
* [[War crimes in the Kosovo War]]
* [[Allied Rapid Reaction Corps]]
* [[1999 NATO bombing of Novi Sad]]
* [[Grdelica train bombing]]
* [[Incident at Pristina airport]]
* [[Prizren Incident (1999)]]
* [[Air Force of Serbia and Montenegro|Air Force of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)]]
* [[Operation Eagle Eye (Kosovo)]]
* [[Bombing of Belgrade in World War II (disambiguation)|Bombing of Belgrade in World War II]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|refs=

<ref name="81-0967 battle damaged in Kosovo during 1999">{{cite web | url=http://www.thewarthogpen.com/81_0967_files/81-0967.html | title=81-0967 battle damaged in Kosovo during 1999 | website=thewarthogpen.com | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912085747/http://www.thewarthogpen.com/81_0967_files/81-0967.html | archive-date=12 September 2012 | access-date=26 October 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="A-10 Thunderbolt II DRAFT LISTING">{{cite web|url=http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/A-10_Thunderbolt_II.htm|title=A-10 Thunderbolt II Draft Listing|website=ejection-history.org.ukaccess|date=19 August 2011|access-date=20 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119090754/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/A-10_Thunderbolt_II.htm|archive-date=19 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="acig.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |title=Yugoslav & Serbian MiG-29s |website=Acig.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214094718/http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |archive-date=14 February 2014 |url-status=usurped |access-date=26 October 2016}}</ref>

<ref name="airforces">Nixon, Mark. "Gallant Knights, MiG-29 in Action during Allied Force." ''AirForces Monthly Magazine'', January 2002</ref>

<ref name="artofwar">Генерал Великович на авиашоу (довоенная фотография). 26 марта ему предстояло сбить F-16 (88-0490 [http://artofwar.ru/img/z/zampini_d_f/text_0580/index.shtml ArtOfWar. Иллюстрации к "Рыцари Короля Лазаря"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703115319/http://artofwar.ru/img/z/zampini_d_f/text_0580/index.shtml |date=3 July 2011 }}. ''Artofwar.ru'', 2 February 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2016. {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

<ref name="autogenerated1999">{{cite web |url=http://clinton6.nara.gov/1999/06/1999-06-25-press-conference-by-the-president.html |title=Press Conference by the President (Bill Clinton) |date=25 June 1999 |website=clinton6.nara.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203103134/http://clinton6.nara.gov/1999/06/1999-06-25-press-conference-by-the-president.html |archive-date=3 February 2008 |access-date=26 October 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="bbc-airport">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm |title=Confrontation over Pristina airport |access-date=8 February 2008 |date=9 March 2000 |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511202144/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="bbc">BBC News (12 November 1999). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/517168.stm "Q & A: Counting Kosovo's dead"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420213141/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/517168.stm |date=20 April 2010 }}</ref>

<ref name="bbc23mar99">{{cite news|title=Nato poised to strike|date=23 March 1999|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/301900.stm|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224082811/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/301900.stm|archive-date=24 February 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Belgrade Airport, Serbia – Aircraft Concealment">{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/pictures/1999/990419/b990419c.jpg |title=Belgrade Airport, Serbia – Aircraft Concealment |website=nato.int |access-date=24 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141108/http://www.nato.int/pictures/1999/990419/b990419c.jpg |archive-date=29 June 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="Biographies:Lieutenant General Michael C. Short">{{cite web |url=http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7136 |title=Biographies: Lieutenant General Michael C. Short |website=Af.mil |access-date=20 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722192345/http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7136 |archive-date=22 July 2012 }}</ref>

<ref name="bombardment">K. Webb, 'Strategic Bombardment & Kosovo: Evidence from the Boer War', ''Defense & Security Analysis'', September 2008, Volume 24, Edition 3</ref>

<ref name="chicagotribune">Steven Erlanger, "Human-rights Group Assails Nato For Yugoslavia Bombing Campaign", ''Chicago Tribune'', Chicago, 8 June 2000, [https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/06/08/human-rights-group-assails-nato-for-yugoslavia-bombing-campaign/] </ref>

<ref name="Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis in Kosovo">{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm |title=Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis in Kosovo |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=13 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081114194328/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm |archive-date=14 November 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="clintonfoundation">Clinton, Bill (13 May 1999). {{cite web |url=http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/051399-speech-by-president-to-veterans-organizations-on-kosovo.htm |title=Speech by President to Veterans Organizations on Kosovo |website=www.clintonfoundation.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927022255/http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/051399-speech-by-president-to-veterans-organizations-on-kosovo.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=26 October 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="cnn">[http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/29/kosovo.03/ "NATO hits Montenegro, says Milosevic faces dissent"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409191806/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/29/kosovo.03/ |date=9 April 2008 }}, ''[[CNN]]'', 29 April 1999.</ref>

<ref name="cnn9">[http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/23/u.s.kosovo.04/ "Clinton: Serbs must be stopped now"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516090035/http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/23/u.s.kosovo.04/ |date=16 May 2008 }}. CNN, 23 March 1999.</ref>

<ref name="collision">Talbott, Strobe, author of the foreword in {{cite book|last=Norris|first=John|title=Collision Course: NATO, Russia, and Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFRq31tqR4sC|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-98753-4}}</ref>

<ref name="CRISIS IN THE BALKANS: THE AIR THREAT; Out of NATO's Reach: Yugoslavia's Treetop War – New York Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/24/world/crisis-balkans-air-threat-nato-s-reach-yugoslavia-s-treetop-war.html |title=Crisis in the Balkans: The air threat; Out of NATO's Reach: Yugoslavia's Treetop War |work=The New York Times |date=24 April 1999 |access-date=13 March 2011 |first=Eric |last=Schmitt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618025339/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/24/world/crisis-balkans-air-threat-nato-s-reach-yugoslavia-s-treetop-war.html |archive-date=18 June 2013 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="das">Riccioni, Colonel Everest E. [http://www.pogo.org#prof "Description of our Failing Defence Acquisition System."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912231713/http://www.pogo.org/#prof |date=12 September 2011 }} Project on government oversight, 8 March 2005. Note: "This event, which occurred during the Kosovo conflict on 27 March, was a major blow to the US Air Force. The aircraft was special: an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber that should have been all but invisible to the Serbian air defences. And this certainly wasn't a fluke{{snd}}a few nights later, Serb missiles damaged a second F-117."</ref>

<ref name="Dead link">{{cite web |url=http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/086/80/PDF/N9908680.pdf?OpenElement |title=ODS – Sédoc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5PwqRp7vR?url=http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/086/80/PDF/N9908680.pdf?OpenElement |archive-date=29 June 2007 }}</ref>

<ref name="defenselink">Cohen, William (7 April 1999). [http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/1999/t04091999_t407nato.html "Secretary Cohen's Press Conference at NATO Headquarters"]. ''www.defensivelink.mil''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930013053/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/1999/t04091999_t407nato.html |date=30 September 2007 }}</ref>

<ref name="Depleted Uranium in Serbia and Montenegro: UNEP Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia">{{cite web|url=http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/duserbiamont.pdf|title=Depleted Uranium in Serbia and Montenegro: UNEP Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|website=postconflict.unep.ch|access-date=20 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707005038/http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/duserbiamont.pdf|archive-date=7 July 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="dictionaryofwar">{{cite web |url=http://dictionaryofwar.org/concepts/Safe_Distance |title=Safe distance |date= 24 February 2007 |website= dictionaryofwar.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308143618/http://dictionaryofwar.org/concepts/Safe_Distance |archive-date=8 March 2015 |access-date=26 October 2016 }} [[Found footage (appropriation)|Found footage]] from the cockpit of the shot down F117.</ref>

<ref name="Dumbaugh">{{cite web|url=http://congressionalresearch.com/RS20547/document.php|title=Chinese Embassy Bombing in Belgrade:Compensation Issues|access-date=8 April 2010|last=Dumbaugh|first=Kerry|date=12 April 2000|work=Congressional Research Service publication|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813224240/http://congressionalresearch.com/RS20547/document.php|archive-date=13 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="ejection-history1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Country-By-Country/Serbia_Montenegro.htm |title=Chronological Listing of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia |work=Ejection-history.org.uk |access-date=13 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612153549/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Country-By-Country/Serbia_Montenegro.htm |archive-date=12 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="erlanger">Erlanger, Steven (11 November 1999). "Early Count Hints at Fewer Kosovo Deaths". ''The New York Times'', p. A6.</ref>

<ref name="faqs">{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avf15_2.html |title=F-15 in Service |website=Faqs.org |access-date=26 October 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040101232837/http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avf15_2.html| archive-date=1 January 2004| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia">{{cite web|title=Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|url=http://www.icty.org/sid/10052#IVB4|work=UNICTY|access-date=26 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914161551/http://www.icty.org/sid/10052#IVB4|archive-date=14 September 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 103">{{cite web| title=Final Vote Results for Roll Call 103| url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll103.xml| website=clerk.house.gov| access-date=19 August 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018053553/http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll103.xml| archive-date=18 October 2012| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 49">{{cite web| title= Final Vote Results for Roll Call 49| url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll049.xml| website=clerk.house.gov| access-date=19 August 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018050344/http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll049.xml| archive-date=18 October 2012| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="First planes land at Pristina airport">{{cite web |work=Corpus Christi Caller Times |url=http://www.caller2.com/1999/june/27/today/national/2493.html |title=First planes land at Pristina airport |date=27 June 1999 |access-date=24 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305034119/http://www.caller2.com/1999/june/27/today/national/2493.html |archive-date=5 March 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="fraser">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6247401.stm|title=Uranium 'killing Italian troops'|work=BBC News|first=Christian|last=Fraser|date=10 January 2007|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202100715/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6247401.stm|archive-date=2 December 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="frontline1">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kosovo/etc/facts.html |title=frontline: war in europe: facts & figures |publisher=PBS |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108042829/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kosovo/etc/facts.html |archive-date=8 November 2012 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="general">General Wesley Clark, ''Waging Modern War'', (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), pp. 305, 425</ref>

<ref name="genocide">Clines, Francis X (30 March 1999). "NATO Hunting for Serb Forces; U.S. Reports Signs of 'Genocide'". ''The New York Times'', p. A1.</ref>

<ref name="GroupedRef2">{{cite web |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2011&mm=03&dd=24&nav_id=73402 |title=Serbia marks anniversary of NATO bombing |work=B92.net |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104171639/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2011&mm=03&dd=24&nav_id=73402 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="GroupedRef3">{{cite web |url=http://www.tanjug.rs/news/36691/13th-anniversary-of-nato-bombing.htm |title=13th anniversary of NATO bombing |website=tanjug.rs |date=24 March 2012 |access-date=15 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512040559/http://www.tanjug.rs/news/36691/13th-anniversary-of-nato-bombing.htm |archive-date=12 May 2012 }}</ref>

<ref name="GroupedRef4">{{cite web |url=http://archive.defense.gov/specials/kosovo/ |title=NATO Operation Allied Force |website=Defense.gov |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118053558/http://archive.defense.gov/specials/kosovo/ |archive-date=18 November 2016 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="history">Gray in Cox and Gray 2002, p. 339</ref>

<ref name="history3">Ritche in Cox and Gray 2002, p. 328.</ref>

<ref name="Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia">{{cite web|url=http://www.f-16.net/news_article2167.html |title=Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia |website=F-16.net |access-date=24 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328173307/http://www.f-16.net/news_article2167.html| archive-date=28 March 2009| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="hosmer2001">Hosmer, 2001, p. 117</ref>

<ref name="hosmer5">Hosmer, 2001, pp. 88–89</ref>

<ref name="hrw.org">{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm |title=Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis in Kosovo |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419162307/http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm |archive-date=19 April 2009 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="hrw">{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419162307/http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm|url-status=dead|title=Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis in Kosovo|archivedate=19 April 2009|publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref>

<ref name="Kosovo operation allied force after-action report">{{cite journal|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kosovoaa/kaar02072000.pdf|title=Report to Congress: Kosovo operation allied force after-action report|website=au.af.mil|date=30 January 2000|pages=31–32|access-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102034549/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kosovoaa/kaar02072000.pdf|archive-date=2 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="lambeth">Lambeth, 2001, p. 74</ref>

<ref name="Larsen">{{cite web |url=http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/pmt/exhibits/927/Serbio.pdf |title=Air University – Serbian Information Operations During Operation Allied Force |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928052816/http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/pmt/exhibits/927/Serbio.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="mondediplo">{{cite web |url=http://mondediplo.com/2002/03/03uranium |title=America's big dirty secret |date=3 March 2002 |work=mondediplo.com |access-date=19 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805042327/http://mondediplo.com/2002/03/03uranium |archive-date=5 August 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="moon">{{cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADA4695E8E4162&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM#prof|title=AJC.com Archive Search Results|website=nl.newsbank.com|access-date=30 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609004521/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADA4695E8E4162&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM#prof|archive-date=9 June 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="NATO & America losses in Serbia 1999">{{cite web|url= http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=1403 |title=NATO & America losses in Serbia 1999 | work=Irandefence.net |access-date=24 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090305062409/http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=1403| archive-date=5 March 2009| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Nato loses two planes">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/333596.stm |title=Nato loses two planes |work=BBC News |date=2 May 1999 |access-date=19 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114054719/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/333596.stm |archive-date=14 January 2014 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="NATO plane downed">{{cite journal|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/f117a_3-27.html |publisher=PBS |title=NATO plane downed |access-date=19 August 2011 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000423150421/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/f117a_3-27.html |archive-date=23 April 2000 }}</ref>

<!--<ref name="Nato warns Milosevic off Montenegro">{{cite journal | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/310527.stm | title=Nato warns Milosevic off Montenegro |publisher=BBC |date=2 April 1999 | access-date=31 December 2009}}</ref> -->

<ref name="NATO_situation">{{cite web|author=NATO |url=http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-051e.htm |title=The situation in and around Kosovo|date=12 April 1999 |access-date=2 August 2011| website=nato.int |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141056/http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-051e.htm| archive-date=29 June 2011| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="nato">{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/kosovo/all-frce.htm#pb |title=NATO & Kosovo: Index Page |website=nato.int |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912233627/http://www.nato.int/kosovo/all-frce.htm#pb |archive-date=12 September 2016 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<!--<ref name="nato1">[http://www.nato.int/kosovo/history.htm "NATO's role in relation to the conflict in Kosovo"], ''www.nato.int'', 15 July 1999. Retrieved 26 October 2016</ref> -->

<ref name="nato7">{{cite web |url=http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int/page7196179.aspx |title=JFC NAPLES – Allied Joint Force Command Naples {{!}} Operation Allied Force |work=Jfcnaples.nato.int |access-date=20 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://veebiarhiiv.digar.ee/a/20101112200638/http%3A//www.jfcnaples.nato.int/page7196179.aspx |archive-date=12 November 2010 }}</ref>

<ref name="Norske jagerfly på vingene i går">{{cite web |url=http://tux1.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/kosovo/d74906.htm |title=Norske jagerfly på vingene i går |newspaper=[[Aftenposten]] |date=26 March 1999 |author=Reidun J. Samuelsen |access-date=26 October 2016 |language=no |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119062654/http://tux1.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/kosovo/d74906.htm |archive-date=19 January 2012 }}</ref>

<ref name="nytimes">''New York Times'' (12 March 1999) [https://archive.today/20120714044040/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60714FB3F5A0C718DDDAA0894D1494D81 "In Vote Clinton Sought to Avoid, House Backs a Force for Kosovo"]</ref>

<ref name="nytimes10">''New York Times'' (29 April 1999) [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1EFF3A590C738FDDAD0894D1494D81 House G.O.P. Adds Billions for Military In Balkans Package"]</ref>

<ref name="On the Concurrent Resolution (S.Con.Res. 21 )">{{cite web | url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00057 | title=On the Concurrent Resolution (S.Con.Res. 21 ) | work=senate.gov | access-date=19 August 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102201817/http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00057 | archive-date=2 November 2011 | url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Operation Allied Force - Operation Allied Force in Kosovo">{{cite web |url=http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1900s/p/alliedforce.htm |title=Operation Allied Force – Operation Allied Force in Kosovo |website=Militaryhistory.about.com |access-date=27 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119015125/http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1900s/p/alliedforce.htm |archive-date=19 November 2012 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="Photos: General Dynamics F-16CG Night Falcon (401) Aircraft Pictures">{{cite web |url=http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/General-Dynamics-F-16CG/0375209&tbl=&photo_nr=11&sok=&sort=&prev_id=0376094&next_id=0319734 |title=Photos: General Dynamics F-16CG Night Falcon (401) Aircraft Pictures |website=Airliners.net |access-date=24 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329222810/http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/General-Dynamics-F-16CG/0375209%26tbl%3D%26photo_nr%3D11%26sok%3D%26sort%3D%26prev_id%3D0376094%26next_id%3D0319734 |archive-date=29 March 2009 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="Photos: Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk Aircraft Pictures">{{cite web| url=http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Lockheed-F-117A-Nighthawk/1290484&tbl=&photo_nr=0&sok=&sort=&prev_id=&next_id=1080801| title=Photos: Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk Aircraft Pictures| publisher=Airliners.net| access-date=24 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329222815/http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Lockheed-F-117A-Nighthawk/1290484%26tbl%3D%26photo_nr%3D0%26sok%3D%26sort%3D%26prev_id%3D%26next_id%3D1080801| archive-date=29 March 2009| url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="preparedness">Statistic from: "The Kosovo refugee crisis: an independent evaluation of UNHCR's emergency preparedness and response", UNHCR Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, February 2000.</ref>

<ref name="Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General following the Commencement of Air Operations">{{cite press release|title=Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General following the Commencement of Air Operations|date=24 March 1999|publisher=NATO|url=http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-041e.htm|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127124645/http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-041e.htm|archive-date=27 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, Secretary General of NATO">{{cite press release|title=Press Statement by Dr. Javier Solana, Secretary General of NATO|date=23 March 1999|publisher=NATO|url=http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-040e.htm|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127131817/http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-040e.htm|archive-date=27 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="rand">Lambeth, 2001, pp. 69–70</ref>

<ref name="ritchie">Ritchie in Cox and Gray 2002, p. 325</ref>

<ref name="ritchie6">Ritchie in Cox and Gray 2002, p. 328</ref>

<ref name="Rozen">{{cite web |last=Zoller |first=Matt |url=http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/10/31/serbia/print.html |title=Laura Rozen: Serbia's culture shock |work=Salon |access-date=20 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210045137/http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/10/31/serbia/print.html |archive-date=10 February 2008 }}</ref>

<ref name="Security Council Rejects Demand for Cessation of Use of Force Against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia">{{cite journal | url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990326.sc6659.html | title=Security Council Rejects Demand for Cessation of Use of Force Against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | publisher=United Nations Organisation | date=26 March 1999 | access-date=19 April 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301043917/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990326.sc6659.html | archive-date=1 March 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="SENSE Tribunal : ICTY">{{cite web|author=daenet d.o.o. |url=http://www.sense-agency.com/en/stream.php?sta=3&pid=5748&kat=3 |title=SENSE Tribunal : ICTY |website=Sense-agency.com |date=24 March 1999 |access-date=24 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309071300/http://www.sense-agency.com/en/stream.php?sta=3&pid=5748&kat=3 |archive-date=9 March 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Serb discusses 1999 downing of stealth">{{cite news |title=Serb discusses 1999 downing of stealth |work=USA Today |date=26 October 2005 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x.htm |access-date=8 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518131932/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x.htm |archive-date=18 May 2007 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'">{{cite news|title=Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'|publisher=BBC|date=14 November 2010|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730055138/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050|archive-date=30 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="specialist">Sergeant William Wright&nbsp;– B Company 9th Engineers (17 July 1999); Specialist Sherwood Brim&nbsp;– B Company 9th Engineers (17 July 1999); Private First Class Benjamin McGill&nbsp;– C Company 1st Battalion 26th Infantry (5 August 1995).</ref>

<ref name="sponauer1">{{cite web |url=http://www.sponauer.com/a-10/index.html |title=John Sponauer – Hogs in a Hot Peace: The A-10 Since Desert Storm |website=Sponauer.com |access-date=13 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520062356/http://sponauer.com/a-10/index.html |archive-date=20 May 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="Task Force Hawk">{{cite web |last=Lambeth |first=Benjamin S. |url=http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2002/February%202002/0202hawk.aspx |title=Task Force Hawk |website=Airforce-magazine.com |access-date=27 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116222244/http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2002/February%202002/0202hawk.aspx |archive-date=16 November 2012 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="telegraph">John Keegan, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/06/06/wkee06.html "Please, Mr Blair, never take such a risk again"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041125191756/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1999%2F06%2F06%2Fwkee06.html |date=25 November 2004 }}. ''Telegraph'', London, 6 June 1999.</ref>

<ref name="telegraph2">Andrew Gilligan, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/04/02/nsprin02.html "Russia, not bombs, brought end to war in Kosovo, says Jackson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050414004950/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1998%2F04%2F02%2Fnsprin02.html |date=14 April 2005 }}. ''Telegraph'', 2 April 1998</ref>

<ref name="The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned">{{cite book|author=Independent International Commission on Kosovo|title=The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0gVDAAAQBAJ|date= 2000|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-924309-9|author-link=Independent International Commission on Kosovo}}</ref>

<ref name="The lessons and non-lessons of the air and missile campaign in Kosovo">{{cite book|last=Cordesman|first=Anthony H.|title=The Lessons and Non-lessons of the Air and Missile Campaign in Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJu9Hh5n5o4C|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-97230-1|page=349}}</ref>

<ref name="The United States, NATO, and a New Multilateral Relationship">{{cite book | title= The United States, NATO, and a New Multilateral Relationship | first= Frank R. | last= Douglas | year= 2008 | page= 98 | publisher= Greenwood Publishing | isbn= 978-0-313-34476-3 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ywDdraB4gV8C&pg=PA98}}</ref>

<ref name="Towards a common European security and defense policy: the ways and means of making it a reality">{{cite book |title=Towards a common European security and defence policy: the ways and means of making it a reality |last=Bonnén |first=Preben |year=2003 |publisher=LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster |isbn=978-3-8258-6711-9 |page=188 }}</ref>

<ref name="Turkish Air Force">{{cite web |url=http://www.hvkk.tsk.tr/PageSub/Kurumumuz/Tarihce/1944-Today.aspx |title=Turkish Air Force |website=Hvkk.tsk.tr |access-date=24 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626073446/http://www.hvkk.tsk.tr/PageSub/Kurumumuz/Tarihce/1944-Today.aspx |archive-date=26 June 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="twodie">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/335709.stm "Two die in Apache crash"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406055137/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/335709.stm |date=6 April 2008 }}, BBC 5 May 1999.</ref>

<ref name="verdict">[http://www.pescanik.net/content/view/2764/65/ "The verdict of the Hague Tribunal"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100518184511/http://www.pescanik.net/content/view/2764/65 |date=18 May 2010 }} (Serbian)</ref>

<!--not used
<ref name="War Crimes in Kosovo">{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm |title=War Crimes in Kosovo |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608205106/http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm |archive-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live  }}</ref>-->

<ref name="washington">Schlafly, Phyllis (19 November 1999). "Numbers Game in Kosovo". ''The Washington Times''.</ref>

<ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/april99/soldiers040299.htm |title=We're Trapped ... We Can't Get Out' |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2 April 1999 |author=Daniel Williams |access-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205503/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/april99/soldiers040299.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

<ref name="washingtonpost8">Doggett, Tom (16 May 1999). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/cohen051699.htm "Cohen Fears 100,000 Kosovo Men Killed by Serbs"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910055341/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/cohen051699.htm |date=10 September 2017 }}. ''The Washington Post''.</ref>

<ref name="wp99mar24">{{cite news|title=NATO Mobilizes for Attack / Yugoslavia declares state of emergency|last=Gellman|first=Barton|date=24 March 1999|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/NATO-Mobilizes-for-Attack-Yugoslavia-declares-2940276.php|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104164612/http://articles.sfgate.com/1999-03-24/news/17681243_1_nato-secretary-general-javier-solana-kosovo-s-ethnic-albanian-rebels-yugoslav-army|archive-date=4 January 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Yugoslav">{{cite web|url=http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml |title=Yugoslav & Serbian MiG-29s |website=Acig.org |access-date=24 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090410044537/http://acig.org/artman/publish/article_380.shtml| archive-date=10 April 2009| url-status= usurped}}</ref>

<ref name="Yugoslavia says village death toll tops 100">{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/14/kosovo.03/| publisher=CNN| title=Yugoslavia says village death toll tops 100| access-date=19 August 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026141759/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/14/kosovo.03/| archive-date=26 October 2012| url-status=live}}</ref>
}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bacevich |first1=Andrew J. |last2=Cohen |first2=Eliot A. |title=War Over Kosovo: Politics and Strategy in a Global Age |date=2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-23150-052-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m66kSeVbvFsC&pg=PA78 |access-date=4 June 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171654/https://books.google.com/books?id=m66kSeVbvFsC&pg=PA78 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Bjola |first=Corneliu |title=Legitimising the Use of Force in International Politics: Kosovo, Iraq and the Ethics of Intervention |year=2009 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |ISBN=978-0-415-49255-3}}
* {{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Sebastian|last2=Gray|first2=Peter|title=Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_AFFjoqeoQC|year=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7146-8257-0}}
* Daalder, Ivo H.; O'Hanlon, Michel E. ''Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo'' (Brookings Institution Press, 2000). [https://archive.org/details/winninguglynatos00daal_0 online]
* {{cite book|last=Hosmer|first=Stephen T.|title=The Conflict Over Kosovo: Why Milosevic Decided to Settle When He Did|url=https://archive.org/details/conflictoverkoso0000hosm|url-access=registration|date=2 July 2001|publisher=Rand Corporation|isbn=978-0-8330-3238-6}}
* {{cite book
| last=Krieger
| first=Heike
| title=The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974–1999
| year=2001
| publisher=Cambridge University Press
| location=Cambridge
| isbn=978-0-521-80071-6
}}
* {{Cite report |last=Lambeth |first=Benjamin S. |year=2001 |title=NATO's Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1365.html |location=Santa Monica, CA |publisher=RAND Corporation |isbn=0-8330-3050-7 |access-date=14 May 2016 |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324095245/https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1365.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|last=Macdonald|first=Scott|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjxCIc247pYC&q=Propaganda+and+Information+Warfare+in+the+Twenty-First+Century+Altered+Images+and+Deception+Operations|title=Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century: Altered Images and Deception Operations|isbn=9781135983512|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171640/https://books.google.com/books?id=JjxCIc247pYC&q=Propaganda+and+Information+Warfare+in+the+Twenty-First+Century+Altered+Images+and+Deception+Operations|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book
| last=McCormack
| first=Timothy
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| editor1-first=Avril
| editor2-last=McCormack
| editor2-first=Timothy
| title=Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law – 2003
| publisher=T.M.C. Asser Press
| location=The Hague
| isbn=978-90-6704-203-1
}}
* {{cite book
| last1=Rip
| first1=Michael Russell
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| first2=James M.
| title=The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare
| year=2002
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| location=Annapolis, MD
| isbn=978-1-55750-973-4
}}
*  {{cite book| last=Parenti| first=Michael| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWbGftW07WoC&q=To+Kill+a+Nation:+The+Attack+on+Yugoslavia| title=To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia| year=2000| publisher=Verso| isbn=978-1-85984-366-6| ref=Parenti| access-date=18 November 2020| archive-date=11 January 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111171713/https://books.google.com/books?id=qWbGftW07WoC&q=To+Kill+a+Nation:+The+Attack+on+Yugoslavia| url-status=live}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Averre, Derek. "From Pristina to Tskhinvali: The Legacy of Operation Allied Force in Russia's Relations with the West," ''International Affairs'' 85#3 (2009), pp.&nbsp;575–591 {{jstor|27695032}}
* Byman, Daniel. L and Waxman, Mathew C. "Kosovo and the Great Air Power Debate". ''International Security'', Vol. 24, No. 4. 2000. pp.&nbsp;5–38.
* {{cite book|title=Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat|publisher=PublicAffairs|year=2001|location=New York|isbn=1-58648-043-X|url=https://archive.org/details/wagingmodernwarb00clar_0}}
* [[Samantha Power|Power, Samantha.]] ''[[A Problem from Hell|"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide]]'' (2002) covers Bosnia, Kosovo, Srebrenica, and Rwanda; Pulitzer Prize.[https://openlibrary.org/works/OL264876W/A_Problem_from_Hell online free to borrow]
* ''New York Times''{{snd}}[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801EED91431F934A25757C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Chinese Embassy Bombing: A Wide Net of Blame"], 17 April 2000.

==External links==
{{Commons category|1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130220173555/http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/Other/960.pdf Kosovo Operation Allied Force{{snd}}After Action Report], January 2000
* [http://www.nato.int/kosovo/all-frce.htm#pb Operation Allied Force] [[NATO]]
* [https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/nato/ Civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign] [[Human Rights Watch]]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kosovo/ frontline: war in europe] [[PBS Frontline]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010223043114/http://www.aeronautics.ru/official/losthelicopters.htm Officially confirmed/documented NATO helicopter losses]
* {{cite web|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/maxwell/mp27.pdf|title=Operation Allied Force: Golden Nuggets for Future Campaigns|author=Lt. Col. Michael W. Lamb Sr|access-date=22 June 2009|archive-date=25 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325105330/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/maxwell/mp27.pdf|url-status=dead}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070814110429/http://www.jfsc.ndu.edu/library/publications/bibliography/kosovo_allied_force.asp Literature list on Operation Allied Force]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080203175233/http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA393976 Serbian Information Operations During Operation Allied Force – Defence Technical Information Center]
* [http://www.stormingmedia.us/67/6793/A679393.html Serbian Information Operations During Operation Allied Force] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023194101/http://www.stormingmedia.us/67/6793/A679393.html |date=23 October 2008 }}–Storming Media, Pentagon reports
* [http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/pmt/exhibits/927/Serbio.pdf Serbian Information Operations During Operation Allied Force]–Air University
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/340966.stm BBC: Nato's bombing blunders] A detailed list of incidents in which civilians were killed
* [https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1365/MR1365.ch4.pdf Why Milosevic Decided to Settle the Conflict Over Kosovo When He Did] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904010418/https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1365/MR1365.ch4.pdf |date=4 September 2018 }} [[Rand Corporation]] study on why Yugoslavia gave in during the Kosovo War of 1999
* [https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/2001/RB71.pdf Why Milosevic Gave Up When He Did], short exposé by the [[Rand Corporation]]

{{Yugoslav wars}}
{{Wars and battles involving Serbs}}
{{Armed conflicts involving the United States Armed Forces}}
{{Presidency of Bill Clinton}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nato Bombing Of Yugoslavia}}
[[Category:1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia| ]]
[[Category:1999 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|NATO bombing]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1999]]
[[Category:1990s in Belgrade]]
[[Category:March 1999 in Europe]]
[[Category:April 1999 in Europe]]
[[Category:May 1999 in Europe]]
[[Category:June 1999 in Europe]]
[[Category:Aerial operations and battles of the Kosovo War|*]]
[[Category:NATO intervention in the former Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:NATO airstrikes|Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Strategic bombing operations and battles]]
[[Category:20th-century Royal Air Force deployments]]
[[Category:Military campaigns involving Germany]]
[[Category:Military operations of the Yugoslav Wars involving Germany|Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Serbia and NATO]]
[[Category:Serbia–United States military relations]]
[[Category:Presidency of Bill Clinton]]
[[Category:Wars involving NATO]]
[[Category:Air campaigns]]
[[Category:Airstrikes in Europe]]
[[Category:Clinton administration controversies]]