Serbia marks today the 13th anniversary of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, which left 3,500 dead and over 12,500 injured.

The campaign, code-named Operation Allied Force, involved 19 NATO countries and began March 24, 1999.It lasted 78 days, resulting in 2,500 civilian deaths, 89 of whom were children, and 1,031 dead soldiers and police officers.

Around 6,000 civilians were injured, of whom 2,700 were children. The military and police had 5,173 injured. NATO's losses have never been made public.

More than half of the casualties from NATO attacks were among the Kosovo Albanians, although the western officials had claimed the intervention was necessary to protect the them.

The decision to go forward with the campaign was made without the consent of the UN Security Council, which was something that had never happened before. The NATO forces were commanded by now retired U.S. general Wesley Clark, who received the order to begin the campaign from Javier Solana, NATO's secretary general at the time.

Yugoslavia was attacked after being blamed for the failure of the negotiations on Kosovo's status, held in Rambouillet and Paris. The Serbian authorities, headed by Slobodan Milosevic, refused to accept the military annex to the proposed agreement, which was interpreted as a permission to occupy the country.

The bombing destroyed whole residential blocks in a number of towns and cities, like Aleksinac, Kursumlija, Cuprija, Nis, Novi Sad, Murin, Valjevo and Surdulica, which resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties.

The campaign ended when the Yugoslav authorities signed the Military Technical Agreement in Kumanovo, Macedonia, June 9, 1999. Three days later, the Yugoslav forces began withdrawing from Kosovo.

Solana gave the official order to stop the bombing on June 10.

The same day, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, which confirmed Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo, while NATO established the Kosovo Force, or KFOR, and sent 37,200 troops from 36 countries to the territory.

Aleksinac to commemorate NATO bombing victims

 The mourning day for the victims of the 1999 NATO bombing will be marked Saturday in Aleksinac, a town in southeast Serbia which suffered one of the most brutal NATO attacks during the 11-week air campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 13 years ago.

The wreaths will be laid by Serbian President Boris Tadic, Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac, and Chief-of-staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Ljubisa Dikovic.

Aleksinac, a town with 17,000 population located in the valley of the Juzna Morava River, was targeted by six powerful missiles striking a residential area on April 5, 1999 at 21.35 CET.

The attack claimed 11 lives and 50 injured.

The 13th night of air strikes left Aleksinac downtown ruined, with severe damages on 35 family homes, 125 flats, a number of businesses, health care center, bus station, etc.

NATO representatives in Brussels claimed that the missiles have gone off course due to a technical error, adding that the real target was a barrack located near the town.

Upon visiting the ruins in Aleksinac, Canadian Major-General Lewis MacKenzie stated that it was a crime against civilians i.e. peaceful citizens in their family homes, in the area with absolutely no military facility.

In the spring of 1999, Aleksinac was bombed on a number of occasions, with the total death toll of 24.

The 78-day air campaign, which started on March 24, 1999, resulted in the death of 2,500 civilians, 89 of whom were children.