March 24, 1999 NATO begins a massive bombardment of Yugoslavia [what is now known]

It was on this day in 1999 that NATO started bombing Yugoslavia [what is now known as the separate states of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo] during the Kosovo war.

The devastating and relentless U.S.-backed intervention took according to some estimates 2,500 lives and injured over 12,000 people. The area was contaminated with depleted uranium that continues to affect the lives of people living in the region today.

Although media claimed that only military spots were of interest, “collateral damage” killed scores of civilians and destroyed schools, libraries, hospitals, bridges, churches, TV stations and tens of thousands of houses and apartment buildings as well as 470 kilometers of roads.

It was the first time that NATO used military force without the approval of the UN Security Council and against a sovereign nation that did not pose a real threat to any member of the alliance. The bombings foreshadowed much greater wars and NATO-led interventions that followed.