PALE, Bosnia -- NATO-led peacekeeping troops in Bosnia broke into the family home of fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic early on Tuesday and carried out a search, a guard at the house told Reuters.

French troops of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) carried out the raid on the house in Pale in the hills above Sarajevo, telling the guard they were looking for weapons, he said.

The wife of the former Bosnian Serb president, who is wanted on charges of genocide, showed up at the house an hour or more after the pre-dawn raid to inspect damage.