SKOPLJE, June 6 (Hina) - Five Macedonian soldiers and police officers were killed and six other were wounded in the Tetovo area on Tuesday evening in what is believed to be the strongest attack of Albanian guerrillas in the past six
weeks, Macedonian government spokesman Antonio Milososki told reporters on Wednesday. Three Macedonian soldiers and two police officers were killed in an ambush of Albanian guerrillas near the village of Gajre on Mt. Popova Sapka. Yesterday evening Albanian guerrillas attacked Macedonian check points in Gajre, Sipkovica and in the Pena River canyon on Mt. Popova Sapka, wounding three soldiers and three police officers, Macedonian army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said. After the attack, a medical team was sent to the area under military-police escort but while leaving the village, it was ambushed by Albanian terrorists who killed three soldiers and two policemen. The three soldiers
SKOPLJE, June 6 (Hina) - Five Macedonian soldiers and police
officers were killed and six other were wounded in the Tetovo area
on Tuesday evening in what is believed to be the strongest attack of
Albanian guerrillas in the past six weeks, Macedonian government
spokesman Antonio Milososki told reporters on Wednesday.
Three Macedonian soldiers and two police officers were killed in an
ambush of Albanian guerrillas near the village of Gajre on Mt.
Popova Sapka.
Yesterday evening Albanian guerrillas attacked Macedonian check
points in Gajre, Sipkovica and in the Pena River canyon on Mt.
Popova Sapka, wounding three soldiers and three police officers,
Macedonian army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
After the attack, a medical team was sent to the area under
military-police escort but while leaving the village, it was
ambushed by Albanian terrorists who killed three soldiers and two
policemen. The three soldiers are from Bitola, where Albanian and
Muslim shops came under attack on April 28 following the killing of
eight Macedonian soldiers, four of whom were Bitola residents.
The latest deaths in the Macedonian army and police will definitely
worsen inter-ethnic relations and hamper efforts to find a
political solution to the Albanian rebellion which erupted this
February.
"The military situation has been deteriorating," a Macedonian
government official told Reuters.
Shooting could be heard in the hills overlooking Tetovo on
Wednesday morning as well, Macedonian Radio reported.
The two sides exchanged fire in another crisis spot, the Kumanovo
area. Military spokesman Markovski said the guerrillas from the
village of Slupcane and nearby hills opened fire at Macedonian
security forces, who fired back.
He said efforts were still being made to find a political solution
for the opening of the dam at Lake Lipovo, which supplies Kumanovo
with fresh water. In case these efforts fail, Macedonian forces
will be forced to open the dam by military means, he said.
If the dam is not opened soon, some 100,000 residents of Kumanovo
will face a humanitarian disaster as the largest part of the city is
already without water and the other part has running water only for
a couple of hours a day, said mayor Slobodan Kovacevski.
(hina) rml