PALE, Bosnia-Hercegovina - US and Italian peacekeepers on Monday raided the home of a man thought to be close to top Balkan war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, NATO and witnesses said.
"We are searching the residence and business establishment of Zeljko Maljukan. NATO believes that he has information regarding persons indicted for war crimes, especially general Mladic," NATO spokesman Dwight Mood said.
The operation by NATO and European Union forces is being carried out as part of NATO's mandate to track down war crimes indictees and disrupt their support networks, he added.
Witnesses said around 100 American and Italian soldiers raided Maljukan's house and commercial garage in Pale, just outside Sarajevo, the Serb stronghold during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander, was indicted 10 years ago by The Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal on charges including genocide, but he remains at large allegedly in neighbouring Serbia.
The indictment of Mladic and wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic includes the 1995 massacre of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern town of Srebrenica.
International peacekeepers have been trying to nab the two for years but all attempts have so far ended in embarrassing failure.
04/25/2005 12:40 GMT