Less Is More in NATO's Kosovo Air War

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The first casualty of war is the truth — particularly when it's about casualties. After the 11-week air campaign last spring, the Pentagon said civilians were killed at just 30 targets in Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro where NATO bombs were dropped. Meanwhile, Serbia claimed NATO warplanes were responsible for at least 1,200 civilian deaths, a figure the Defense Department hasn't challenged.

But a report released this week by Human Rights Watch says both sides are wrong. After inspecting bomb sites in the former Yugoslavia, researchers found that civilians had been killed at 90 targets attacked by NATO jets. And yet total civilian casualties were about 500, less than half the Yugoslav estimate. NATO war planners "were obsessed with avoiding collateral damage," says William Arkin, who led the investigation. "But it doesn't necessarily mean they made the right target choices." The Pentagon, which hasn't been able to send officers to Serbia to assess damage, had no comment on the report.