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Macedonian Army Blasts Albanian Villages
KUMANOVO, Macedonia, May 4 (News Agencies) - The Macedonian army on Friday pounded ethnic Albanian rebels in northern villages for a second day, using heavy artillery and helicopter gunships in a concerted effort to stamp out the insurrection threatening a new Balkans conflict.
Non-stop artillery fire Friday morning shook the hills around the village of Vaksince, seized by the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) on Thursday after its fighters shot dead two Macedonian soldiers patrolling the area, and captured a third.
Thick smoke swirled above several villages, while houses could be seen blazing from the hills outside the city of Kumanovo overlooking Vaksince and Slupcane, both in rebel hands.
After a four-hour lull starting midday (1000 GMT) to give villagers a chance to flee the combat zone, the bombardment resumed with the same intensity, with a rapid-fire volley of shells throwing up fire over Slupcane.
It trailed off into sporadic fire after about an hour.
Defense ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said no civilians left and the rebels failed to surrender as demanded, so the bombardment continued.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said two villagers had been killed in the fighting, while a rebel commander in Slupcane said shrapnel injured two others.
The international community, which backed a proportionate military response to the insurrection, warned Macedonia to avoid civilian casualties, which could radicalize moderate Albanians into backing the gunmen.
The rebels' political leader, Ali Ahmeti, said in a statement that five Macedonian soldiers had been killed and 11 injured. The army rejected the claims.
It said it had no details of NLA losses but accused the gunmen of keeping some 3,500 villagers in the combat zone as a human shield.
It said NLA fighters were shooting from the upper stories of houses in whose cellars terrified villagers were sheltering, restricting its ability to target the rebels with heavy weapons.
Despite that, Trendafilov said rebel forces suffered "severe damage," but gave no details.
The European Union, which condemned the "renewed acts of violence by ethnic Albanian extremists," called on the NLA in a statement "to release the hostages and withdraw immediately".
The sudden re-emergence of the rebels to seize a chunk of Macedonian territory close to the Serbian border exploded government claims in late March that it had broken the rebels as an organized force.
Instead they appear to have taken the time to regroup and plan their next offensive.
The latest fighting is just a few kilometers across the border from Serbia's Presevo Valley, where a similar rebel group thought to be linked to the NLA is fighting for self-rule.
Thursday's lightning operation - in which they forced Macedonian troops to withdraw from Vaksince, set up roadblocks and checkpoints - appears to have caught the government on the back foot.
Macedonia's Slav majority was still reeling from the killing of eight security officers last weekend near Tetovo, when a patrol ventured in territory near the northwestern border with Kosovo held by the rebels.
A funeral for four policemen in Bitola Monday sparked two nights of anti-Albanian rioting, further escalating tensions in the already strained country.
Nighttime curfews are in place in the three major cities Tetovo, Bitola and Kumanovo.
The resurgence of violence has also burdened efforts to press ahead with a political dialogue on improving the lot of ethnic Albanians, who are Muslim, which the international community has urged Skopje to continue as a means of defusing the crisis.
The government promised the European Union talks with ethnic Albanian political leaders would turn up concrete results by June, but minority representatives have accused Skopje of stalling.
A Balkans analyst at the capital's military academy said Thursday that the policy of restrained military response had failed and that Macedonia was close to civil war.
The British ambassador to Skopje, Mark Dickinson, also said Thursday the NLA's aim was civil war.
Robert Frowick of the OSCE pan-European security body said here the NLA "units that precipitated the current situation must withdraw. They have no mandate for their actions or presence in Macedonia."
NATO chief George Robertson and EU security and foreign policy high representative Javier Solana said they would be in Macedonia on Monday.
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