The Lužane bus bombing occurred on May 1, 1999, during the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 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 bombing ...

, when

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

AGM-114 Hellfire missiles fired from AH-64 Apache targeted a bridge in

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

hit a bus. The bus was hit on the Lužane (near Podujevo) north of

Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...

. On that day, 46 civilians of Serb and Albanian ethnicity were killed. Among the victims were 14 children. One section plunged off the bridge into the river below.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

believes that NATO did not always meet its legal obligation in selection targets of attack, one of which includes bombing of this bridge in Lužane, where NATO forces failed to suspend the attack after it was evident that they had struck the civilians. The bus (

Niš-Ekspres Niš-Ekspres (full legal name: ''Akcionarsko društvo za saobraćajnu delatnost Niš-Ekspres Niš'') is a bus company based in Niš, Serbia. Established in 1951, the company is today the largest and most-used public intercity transportation from N ...

) was on a regular express service, linking

and

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luzane bus bombing Aerial operations and battles of the Kosovo War 1999 in Kosovo NATO airstrikes Bus bombings in Europe Civilian casualties in the Kosovo War United States war crimes Incidents involving NATO May 1999 in Europe 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia Podujevë

See also

References