Grdelica train bombing | |
---|---|
Part of the Kosovo War | |
Railway bridge and monument to victims | |
Type | Missile attack |
Location | Near Grdelica, FR Yugoslavia 42°52′37″N 22°05′09″E / 42.87697°N 22.085953°E |
Target | Bridge |
Date | 12 April 1999 |
Executed by | ![]() |
Casualties | 20 killed or missing according to HRW[1] 50 killed according to Tanjug[1] 55 killed according to Serbian government[2] |
The Grdelica train bombing occurred on 12 April 1999, when two missiles fired by a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fighter bomber hit a passenger train while it was passing across a railway bridge over the Južna Morava river in the Grdelica gorge, some 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of Belgrade, Serbia. At least 20 civilian passengers were killed or declared missing. Estimates of the total death toll run as high as 60.[1] It is considered the deadliest rail disaster in Serbian history.[3][4]
The bombing occurred during Operation Allied Force, a NATO operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) aimed at forcing the FRY government to end the repression of Albanians in Kosovo.[5] The campaign had begun by attacking mainly military targets, but by mid-April the emphasis had changed to strategic and economic targets such as transport links, particularly major bridges.