Daylight attacks on Yugoslav targets were launched for the first time yesterday by NATO as part of its ongoing air strikes.
Two Yugoslav MiG 29 aircraft were shot down over Bosnia by NATO fighters. Initial reports that the pilots were captured by troops from the multinational peacekeeping force S-For were contradicted by later accounts which said the men had ejected and were on the run.
There is increasing concern over reports of atrocities in Kosovo by Serbian forces against the Albanian population.
Air Commodore David Wilby, a NATO spokesman, said in Brussels that "Serbian troops have been reported as conducting brutal and violent attacks on Kosovo Albanians and kidnapping leading intellectuals".
NATO had also "learned of the release of some 300 hardline Serb prisoners who have been added to the ranks of the paramilitary troops," he said.
President Clinton has broadcast by satellite to Yugoslavia, saying the US and its allies had no quarrel with the Serbian people and had tried every available means to avoid military conflict.
In the 15-minute broadcast in English, Serbian and Russian, the President blamed the attacks on President Slobodan Milosevic, telling Serbs that "he has diminished your country's standing, exposed you to violence and instability and isolated you from the rest of Europe".
"Hopefully, he will realise that his present course in unsustainable. Ultimately, it is self-destructive," Mr Clinton said.
At the UN in New York, efforts to stop the raids failed when the Security Council rejected a Russian resolution demanding an immediate halt to them and the resumption of negotiations over Kosovo.
The vote in the 15-nation council was only three in favour of the draft - Russia, China and Namibia - with 12 against and no abstentions. Since it failed to win the minimum nine votes needed for adoption, the United States, Britain and France, who are members of NATO, did not have to exercise their vetoes as permanent members of the Security Council.
The Russian resolution, co-sponsored by non-council members Belarus and India, called the use of force by NATO without the Security Council's authorisation a "flagrant violation of the UN Charter".
NATO officials have said that in the first two nights of air strikes, Operation Allied Force had struck 50 Yugoslav targets, mainly air-defence systems. Some 64 NATO aircraft had taken part and all had returned safely in spite of Yugoslav claims of shooting down several.
NATO officials said there had been no opposition from Yugoslav aircraft on the second night and there was one unsuccessful attempt to launch a surface-to-air missile. Three Yugoslav MiG fighters were shot down on the first night of air strikes.
In Brussels, the NATO secretary general, Mr Javier Solana, denied that NATO solidarity was weakening. He said that at the meeting of the alliance's Atlantic Council, "everybody was behind the policy we have decided".
US Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright said in Washington that while "Russia does not agree with our decision to launch military strikes", it did deserve credit for trying to accept the Kosovo peace settlement worked out at Rambouillet. "We are, and will remain in close touch," she said.
Yesterday, the third day of strikes began, with daylight air strikes by NATO aircraft based in Italy and with Tomahawk missile launches from a US ship in the Adriatic. The first use of daylight strikes may have been an effort to anticipate bad weather forecast over Yugoslavia or to step up pressure on President Milosevic, who so far has shown no sign of agreeing to the NATO terms for ending the air strikes.
And one side effect of the raids, an increasing refugee problem, was also apparent yesterday. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, in the past 24 hours some 2,000 refugees fled the region of Sandjak, which straddles Serbia and Montenegro.
Many of them headed for Bosnia and are men of fighting age from Sandjak, which is populated by Muslim Slavs, UNHCR spokesman, Mr Kris Janowski, said. The UN agency has not been able to have in-depth talks with the refugees, but they are believed to have fled a mobilisation.
Mr Janowski said there has not been a large exodus of civilians from Kosovo heading for Macedonia or Albania since the bombings started. "One reason why so few people cross [the border] is that they are probably afraid of using the roads in Kosovo, full of military and police checkpoints."
In Turkey, a total of 2,637 refugees from Kosovo have arrived since Monday, officials said. A statement issued by a local governor in north-western Turkey said the refugees had crossed Turkey's border with Bulgaria.
Reuters adds: The UN Security Council last night overwhelmingly defeated a Russian resolution demanding an immediate halt to NATO attacks on Yugoslavia and the urgent resumption of negotiations on Kosovo.
The vote in the 15-nation council was three in favour, with 12 against. Voting in favour were Russia, China and Namibia. Opposing the resolution were: Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Gabon, Gambia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Slovenia and the US.