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Peacekeepers Trade Fire With Ethnic Albanians, Injures Two
NATO-led international peacekeeping troops exchanged fire with ethnic Albanian extremists Wednesday in Kosovo and injured two of them, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported.
According to a statement released by the peacekeepers, fighting broke out around 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning when a group of US soldiers came across six armed ethnic Albanians coming from Macedonia at the border area of Kosovo.
The US soldiers opened fire and injured two ethnic Albanians, the statement said.
The NATO-led international peacekeeping forces (KFOR) have enhanced surveillance in Kosovo since Monday as ethnic Albanian extremists from Macedonia mounted a series of attacks on Macedonian soldiers and police in recent days, the Tanjug said.
Meanwhile, the Macedonian troops also kept a close eye on the situation in areas bordering Kosovo, Macedonian Defense Ministry Spokesman Georgi Trandafilov said Wednesday.
All villages except Tanusheci along the border were under the control of Macedonia and the ministry saw no signs of large-scale armed conflicts in the near future in the region, he said.
Since Macedonia and Yugoslavia signed an agreement on the delimitation of their common border in late February after 10 years of efforts, the Kosovo-Macedonia border areas have been gripped by a spate of violence by ethnic Albanian extremists.
About one-fourth of Macedonia's population are ethnic Albanians, who have been demanding the government grant more rights to them. Balkan governments and NATO members fear the conflict would lead to new turmoil in the region.
Also on Wednesday, in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley, two Yugoslav soldiers were killed and two others wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine. The soldiers were traveling outside the village of Oreovica, on the edge of a five-km-wide buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
The buffer zone was set up in accordance with an agreement signed between Yugoslavia and NATO in June 1999.
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