Image of burning building does not show NATO bombing in Yugoslavia in 1999.
A 2003 photograph of Baghdad’s night skyline burning after a missile strike has been shared in a tweet from the account of the Russian Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The text in the tweet, however, referred to the NATO military intervention in the Kosovo crisis in 1999.
The verified account shared the image on Mar.24 alongside text reading, “On 24 March 1999 the US-led NATO commenced its act of illegal and unprovoked aggression against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which lasted 78 days” (here).
The photograph used in the tweet can be viewed on Getty images with the caption, “Fires burn in and around Saddam Hussein’s Council of Ministers during the first wave of attacks in the “shock and awe” phase of “Operation Iraqi Freedom” on March 21, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq”.
The United States led NATO bombing campaign of Serbian forces began in 1999 and was aimed at halting the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo by troops of the late nationalist president Slobodan Milosevic. NATO began bombing on March 24 and continued its aggression for 78 days until Milosevic agreed to pull his forces from Kosovo and end the killing of Albanian civilians in a counter-insurgency war. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, backed by the United States and most EU countries.
The photograph shows events from the 2003 war in Iraq. It is unrelated to the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Serbia.
