WASHINGTON, June 2 -- The Pentagon has begun detailed planning and training for commando raids to free U.N. peacekeepers held hostage by Serb nationalist forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, U.S. officials said Friday. Elite units of Marines and Navy SEALs specializing in hostage-rescue missions have been dispatched to U.S. warships in the Adriatic Sea and preparations are under way to deploy four unmanned spy aircraft in the region that can see down to 1 inch from an altitude of 20,000 feet, they said. President Clinton has said he would inject U.S. ground troops into the Balkan maelstrom to enforce a peace treaty and to reposition or withdraw U.N. peacekeepers. Clinton has also ruled out U.S. participation in any combat scenario, such as the French-planned quick- reaction force to be based in Croatia, unless it is an 'American operation from top to bottom,' they said. But Clinton is willing to send U.S. 'special-operations' forces on commando raids to free some 350 blue helmets held hostage by Serb nationalists if such a request comes from NATO, they said. To that end, U.S. officials said the Pentagon has been brushing up on hostage-rescue techniques during a series of secret exercises in New Mexico involving elements of all four service branches. A joint special operations command has been formed to oversee the preparations. 'It's a dress rehearsal for rescuing those peacekeepers in Bosnia,' a senior U.S. official familiar with the operation said. Officials from the Pentagon, White House, State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies agreed to discuss some elements of the planning with United Press International providing they were not identified by name or agency.
They said the multi-service force just completed an exercise near White Sands, New Mexico, called Roving Sands '95, in which a new generation of robot reconnaissance aircraft was tested. A second maneuver involving the unmanned aerial vehicles and U.S. forces is now under way at a location in the United States that officials refused to reveal. But they said that the high-technology aircraft and American rescue teams will be in place near the Balkans and 'ready to go within five weeks.' The timing of the deployment will allow U.N. forces to reposition themselves in defensible positions so Bosnian Serbs can not 'just grab new hostages to replace the ones we rescue,' they said. The Predator unmanned spy planes, developed by General Atomics in San Diego, will be the 'centerpiece' of the operation, they said. It will give the U.S. rescue teams the ability to 'see Serb shoelaces from 20, 000 feet,' one official said. 'Good intelligence is the key building block of any rescue operation,' the official said. The four Predators, which can operate unrefueled for 24 hours and cover a distance of 6,000 miles on one tank of gas, rely on infra-red optics for night operations and on electro-optical sensors during daylight. Any rescue operation will take place during the night, official said. The aircraft, which cost $4 million each, are 'virtually undetectable' on the type of conventional radar used by Bosnian Serbs. Patrolling above 15,000 feet, the Predator will be able to transmit 'every detail' of Serb redoubts where U.N. hostages are held, they said. 'You name it -- weapons, entrances to bunkers, even the path to the latrines,' a U.S. official said. That official and others declined to reveal where the Predators would be based, but they indicated Aviano Air Base in Italy was a likely candidate. Defense Secretary William Perry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili may discuss planning for the operation with their NATO counterparts during a weekend meeting in Paris, they said.
