71.   Bosnian Croat forces also took the towns of Drvar and Sipovo, Hina reported.

72.   Croat forces consisting of regular Croatian army troops and Bosnian Croat units punched through Serb defences in southern Bosnia on Friday taking two towns.

73.   Defence ministry officials said the town was taken early in the day in a four-hour offensive during which warplanes assisted the ground forces.

74.   Coward could not say if the assault was a serious attempt to take the town.

75.   Croatians at first claimed to have taken the town but later backed down and said they had only taken land near it.

76.   Ex-government forces loyal to former defence minister Ahmed Shah Masood took the town back from the Taliban last weekend.

77.   Earlier in the week, a rival group, the United Liberation Movement, said it had taken the town, but NPFL leader Charles Taylor denied the claim.

78.   The remarks were made Thursday in Guadelupe Tepeyac before the town was taken, La Jornada said.

79.   The separatists took the town early Friday without a fight, he said.

80.   The town had been taken over just hours earlier by the army soldiers after being in FARC hands for more than three years.