NATO peacekeepers hunting Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic mounted a night-time raid on his old stronghold Pale yesterday, wounding a priest and his son but failing to find Karadzic.
"We did not find the individual we were looking for," said Captain Dave Sullivan, spokesman for the NATO-led force SFOR.
"We conducted a focused operation ... to detain Radovan Karadzic. We searched an administrative accommodation building but we failed to locate him," Sullivan said.
Around 40 American, British and German troops aboard helicopters and vehicles took part in the raid, which centered on the town's Serbian Orthdox church and nearby priest's accommodation.
The wife of Father Jeremija Starovlah told reporters her husband and son were injured when troops burst into the family home next to the church.
"We were awoken by shooting. Soldiers burst into the house and immediately took them to another room ... a soldier put a gun to my head. I heard my husband cry for help, but I could do nothing," she said.
"I don't know if they are still alive."
A NATO spokesman said the two were flown by helicopter to a US base in northern Bosnia near Tuzla and were taken to the city's hospital for treatment.
Officials there declined to state their condition.
The raid began when a convoy of US troops rolled into Pale shortly after 1:15am, according to a resident who said he saw the entire operation.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire and an explosion, as at least four NATO helicopters hovered over the center of the town, in the mountains above the Bosnian capital.
"Despite precautions, two civilians were injured inside the house. They received blast injuries," Sullivan said.
The gravity of the injuries to the priest and his son was not known. It appeared to be the first time that the Karadzic manhunt had resulted in injury to civilians and it was likely to anger Bosnian Serbs, many of whom view Karadzic as a hero and the church as inviolate.
SFOR has in recent months intensified its seven-year hunt for Karadzic, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on two charges of genocide for the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in the 1992 to 1995 war.
Troops have arrested three suspected members of Karadzic's alleged "support network" in raids over the past three months but set them free after interrogation lasting several days.
The former leader of the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic has a price of US$5 million on his head.
He and his former army commander General Ratko Mladic rank as the most wanted Balkan fugitives still at large.
Both are accused of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys, as well as the siege of Sarajevo in which some 12,000 were killed.
Karadzic is long believed to have moved between various remote hideouts in mountainous eastern Bosnia and neighboring Montenegro, with the help of supporters.
In a major operation in January, a large contingent of NATO troops spent three days in Pale searching the church, a local clinic and a number of buildings associated with the Karadzic family.
NATO sources at the time said they were acting on a tip that he had been forced to seek urgent medical attention in his old stronghold where his wife still lives.
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