Bosnian Troops Fail to Break Serbs' Tight Siege of Sarajevo

After a military offensive that failed to break the Serbian siege lines around Sarajevo, Bosnian Government troops fell back today to a city plunged in gloom over the heavy costs of the attempt and the narrowing options that it appears to have left to the city's defenders.

After 36 hours of intense fighting on the hills to the north of the city, the battle subsided today, with the Serbian nationalist forces still hemming the Bosnians in as they have since the siege began nearly four months ago.

The Bosnian forces, fighting with light weapons against the heavy guns of the Serbs, appear to have made only modest inroads into Serbian lines, and at a devastating cost to themselves. Sarajevo Bombarded

The Serbian forces, responding as they have to every Bosnian drive to open a corridor across the mountains that encircle this city, bombarded Sarajevo relentlessly throughout Thursday night and Friday. Their artillery, mortar and tank fire struck in apparently random fashion throughout the city, blasting houses and apartment buildings and causing what officials at the city morgue said was the greatest number of casualties of any day of the siege.

The scene at the morgue, part of the Kosevo Hospital complex that nestles on the hillside within sight of the fighting, was gruesome. Attendants showed reporters a register with the names of 40 people who had been killed on Friday, about half of them civilians, including several women and a 6-year-old girl who had been decapitated by a mortar blast. The attendants said an average of 10 to 15 bodies had been received by the morgue each day since the siege began in April.

While groups gathered at Lion Cemetery nearby for the burials of 8 soldiers and 4 civilians, 24 other soldiers lay in the morgue, still dressed in combat boots and camouflage fatigues. Most of them were killed by what appeared to have been artillery and mortar blasts.