Hours after the attack in which almost 70 people died, US generals were claiming it was all Serb propaganda; they even claimed the Serbs had attacked the convoy and tried to make it look like a NATO attack. Then there were rumours that the pilot had been confused because the refugees were being used as shields by Serb forces. Another suggestion was that the Serbs had somehow got the pilot's communication code and garbled his commands.

But none of these whoppers would kill the story. NATO political leaders then took the line that there were always ``accidents'' in wars and Slobodan Milosevic was responsible for NATO's attack on the refugee convoy because he had precipitated the war.

NATO finally managed to come up with an ``explanation'' only on Monday. US Brigadier General DanielLeaf told reporters: ``It is our assessment that NATO forces may have inadvertently struck civilian type vehicles and civilian personnel.'' In effect, confirming that NATO planes had bombed cars and tractors carrying refugees. Losing himself in the obfuscating comfort of militarese, Brigadier General Leaf admitted that NATO aircraft did attack ``two targets'' in Kosovo on that day one ``small group of vehicles'' and one ``very large convoy''. He confirmed that two laser-guided bombs with identifiable NATO markings were indeed dropped on vehicles in both convoys.

He said they ``appeared to have been military some of them may have been civilian.'' In an amazing understatement of fact, General Leaf said: ``It is possible there were civilian casualties at both locations.'' Leaf said the vehicle in the convoy was chosen as a target for attack with a 500lb laser-guided bomb by a NATO pilot because the pilot concluded that its occupants were burning houses. He would not say how the pilot reached thisconclusion but insisted that the scene of burning houses was a ``very graphic and horrifying'' one. How graphic exactly? Apparently ``at that altitude and to the naked eye, they appeared to be military vehicles''. Leaf explained: ``But it was the association of the vehicle with the house-burnings that made it a legitimate target.''

But there was absolutely no indication that NATO was willing to accept that it was responsible for civilian casualties. Leaf's take on that issue was: ``I cannot explain the bodies seen on Serb TV. There is the possibility that civilian-type vehicles were struck and there may have been civil personnel harmed. We can't determine that clearly.''

"In the chaos that is Kosovo'', he said, "there were some reports that some victims may have died from machine gun and mortar wounds.

Tank-busters on the way

NATO geared up on Monday for closer combat with the Serbs, preparing to send ``tank-busting'' Apache helicopters into action next week, officials said. The diplomaticfront also heated up with US President Bill Clinton and Russia's Boris Yeltsin debating the crisis over the phone in their first talks since the NATO action began on March 24.

There was little sign they narrowed their differences. With nearly four weeks of bombing making little dent in the Serb drive to chase ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo, the AH-64 Apache helicopters would add a new dimension to the alliance's efforts. The aircraft, one of the stars of the US arsenal in the 1991 Gulf War, can attack day or night and specialises in destroying tanks.