Bosnian genocide suspect arrested

A Bosnian Serb army commander, who is wanted for the extermination of thousands of Muslims during the Bosnian war, has been arrested by the Nato-led force in Bosnia.

Dragan Obrenovic will be transferred to The Hague for trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), according to a Nato announcement in Brussels.

Lieutenant Colonel Obrenovic was under a sealed indictment by the ICTY for the "deaths, and for complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, murder and torture", the statement, quoted by the AFP news agency, said.

Bosnian Serb media said he was the commander of the army's Zvornik brigade and was detained on the border between the Republika Srbska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

His lawyer Krstan Simic told Bosnian Serb Republic Radio-TV that he was "shocked" by the arrest on "this most important of Christian holidays",.