A second round of air strikes - described by NATO as "severe" - began last night on targets in Yugoslavia and Kosovo where Serb forces are continuing their attacks on the Albanian population.
The Pentagon indicated in Washington that these latest strikes would be more punishing. Early reports said that two of the 18 launches of Tomahawk missiles from the USS Gonzalez in the Adriatic failed and fell into the water.
NATO aircraft took off from bases in Italy to hit targets. Three Yugoslav MiG fighters were shot down during the first wave of strikes, the NATO Supreme Commander, Gen Wesley Clark, said at the alliance headquarters in Brussels.
"We are going to systematically and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and ultimately - unless President Milosevic complies with the demands of the international community - we're going to destroy these forces and their facilities and support," he said.
About a dozen persons were killed and 60 wounded in the first round of air strikes which hit some 40 targets around Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo which make up the republic of Yugoslavia.
President Clinton who was fully briefed by his national security staff said that Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, must "choose peace" or the NATO attacks will continue.
Mr Sandy Berger, national security adviser, said that the Serb offensive in Kosovo "has increased somewhat" and includes shelling by Serb forces into Albania. There were also further burning of villages.
In Macedonia which backs the NATO action, Serb demonstrators attacked the US embassy in the capital Skopje and the hotel where foreign journalists expelled from Yugoslavia are staying. There were also demonstrators at the British and French embassies.
The Macedonian authorities dispersed the demonstrators but the Government has appealed for international help to cope with the thousands of refugees fleeing from Serbian aggression in Kosovo.
The Serbian Government yesterday ordered all journalists from NATO countries involved in the air attacks out of the country. But this expulsion order was followed by a contradictory statement from the federal government of Yugoslavia which said all journalists were welcome to stay as long as they were objective.
The strained relations between the US and Russia were put under further pressure as angry Russians demonstrated outside the American embassy in Moscow. But President Boris Yeltsin said that Russia would not use force to help Yugoslavia.
There is no indication, so far, that the strikes are persuading Yugoslavia to accept the proposed political solution.