Before strikes could begin, NATO had to consider the safety of more than a thousand unarmed OSCE verifiers inside Kosovo. Clark judged that the available force could not conduct a credible forced-entry hostage rescue if Serbian forces detained them. The monitors withdrew without losses, but their departure was immediately followed by renewed expulsions of Kosovo Albanians. Planning then faced another shortage when a United States carrier assigned to the operation was diverted to the Persian Gulf and land-based aircraft had to replace it. Evacuation, hostage risk, humanitarian timing, and competing global force demands constrained the opening of the air campaign.
Notable Point · 2:29:12-2:30:38
Evacuating Kosovo verifiers before NATO air strikes
The risk that Serbian forces might seize more than a thousand unarmed monitors exposed the limits of NATO's forced-entry options before the air campaign.