Posted on 09/07/2003 10:26:23 AM PDT by Destro
Macedonia Says Gunmen Killed in Clash Near Kosovo
Sun September 7, 2003 12:40 PM ET
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia said on Sunday several gunmen were killed in a clash with security forces hunting ethnic Albanian militants in the country's mountainous north near U.N.-run Kosovo.
Police and troops suffered no casualties in a coordinated operation near the remote village of Brest, on the frontline during the guerrilla insurgency that shook Macedonia in 2001, a police statement said.
Macedonian media said three people had died while four were wounded in what appeared to have been the biggest such crackdown since the fighting two years ago.
"Several members of the armed group have lost their lives because they used weapons while resisting arrest," police said.
"Police units supported by the army have successfully carried out an operation to neutralize the armed groups operating in the area of the village Brest," the statement said. "There are no casualties among the security forces."
An ethnic Albanian mayor in the nearby municipality of Lipkovo earlier said he had heard reports of casualties when talking with people from Brest, but could not give details.
"The fight began early in the morning and the blasts could be heard far away," Mayor Husamedin Halili said. "A number of villagers are leaving the village and are going toward Lipkovo and Kosovo."
Police said they had not used any force against the local civilian population or their property.
Macedonia has seen sporadic incidents since the seven-month rebellion ended two years ago with a Western-backed peace accord, under which guerrillas agreed to lay down their arms in return for better rights for the large Albanian minority.
Police last week launched a hunt for gunmen who abducted and briefly held two policemen, raising fears among ethnic Albanian locals of a re-run of the fighting in 2001, when tens of thousands of people fled their homes.
Officials say they are searching for gangs claiming to belong to the shadowy Albanian National Army, which rejected the peace deal and which the United Nations in Kosovo has declared a terrorist organization.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had teams in northern Macedonia but it did not know of any casualties as they had not yet entered Brest.
(Additional reporting by Remzie Fetai)
Looks like the Macedonians are oppressing ethnic Albanian freedom fighters. A few more of such battles and it will be called "genocide."
I'm expecting our newest Muhammedan cheerleader, ol' Bonly boy, to chime in any time now!
Yes, folks like Bonly tend to scatter from the truth like so many cockroaches from the light.
I'm sure Bonly will attribute this to the vicious Serb children swimming out in front of where the Muhammedans were shooting and attacking the bullets with their bodies!
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