Eight Macedonian Troops Killed on Kosovo Border

Four soldiers and four officers of the Macedonian security forces were killed on Saturday when they were patrolling around Vejce village on Macedonia's border with the Serbian province of Kosovo, said reports reaching Tirana from Skopje, capital of Macedonia.

Ethnic Kosovo Albanian guerrillas were accused of causing the casualties.

The eight were trapped in an ambush by suspected Kosovo Albanian guerrillas, according to Georgi Trendafilov, a spokesman of the Macedonian Defense Ministry.

The attackers fired machine guns and rockets at the patrol near the mountainous regions of Vejce village. Macedonian officials said this attack was the first since an ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency was quelled in March.

The casualties were also the heaviest for a single incident since fierce clashes between government forces and Kosovo Albanian extremists erupted in Kosovo in February.






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