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Isolated Albanian Rebels Suffer Reversal
TETOVO, Macedonia, March 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Macedonian forces advanced rapidly into the hills above Tetovo on Sunday to capture rebel-held villages after launching their long-threatened offensive under a huge artillery barrage.
And as Macedonia drove back ethnic Albanian rebels near Kosovo's southern border, Yugoslav troops moved into a previously de-militarized zone on the U.N.-run province's northeastern fringe which had become a safe haven for a second rebel group.
Belgrade and Skopje claim the rebels are infiltrating from Kosovo to further their dream of a "Greater Albania". The international community has backed those claims, fearing increased rebel activity could spark another Balkan war.
"The action is going according to plan. We expect a quick end to this operation," Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski told reporters at Tetovo's police station.
A force of around 250 troops backed by two tanks and more than a dozen armored personnel carriers took the hilltop village of Gajre just above the town after fighting its way past barricades defended by rebel gunmen.
It was the first time Macedonian government forces advanced up the hills above Tetovo attempting a ground offensive to flush the rebels out.
So far CNN reports that one policeman, four Albanians and one Macedonian were injured in the fighting.
The assault was preceded by a two-hour barrage of heavy artillery and rocket fire, as Russian-made T-55 tanks and Macedonian troops were deployed in the town, replacing police special forces units at key firing positions.
At least two helicopter gunships, recently acquired from the Ukraine, were involved in the operation, which followed an attack late Saturday by Macedonian helicopters on suspected rebel positions, the first use of air power by the government.
The rebels responded to Sunday's assault with rifle fire and mortar rounds, two shells hitting the town, damaging shops and smashing windows.
The BBC reports that rebels from the National Liberation Army (NLA), which had held villages for almost two weeks, had withdrawn into the woods above the village
In the Macedonian capital Skopje, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said that a two-phase "final operation" was focused on the NLA.
The second phase of the operation "is still under way and it consists of taking over the positions of terrorists," he said late Sunday.
Speaking to the BBC, Interior Ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski, said, "Actions undertaken until now only succeeded in containing the terrorists, but we now want to retake the territory," adding that, "We are right now in the real war."
The tanks joined the battle in the early afternoon after a brief lull in fighting while the rebels held off the government advance. Afterwards heavy fire could be heard as troops pressed forward to flush the NLA out of their bunkers.
Following the fighting in Gajre dozens of ethnic Albanian civilians were found crouched in a cellar under a half-built house in the village, witnesses said.
The NLA was thought to have between 500 to 1,000 fighters dug in to defensive positions in the Sar mountains and in villages where up to 20,000 people may still be living.
The government had urged civilians to leave the area before the assault.
However, Tetovo hospital director Rahim Thaci told AFP by phone that since noon (1000 GMT) Sunday, "five people, among them a policeman, have been injured."
The NLA's stated objective is to force the government to accord "equal rights" to Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, who represent between 23% and 40% of the country's 2.1 million population.
But Skopje's ruling coalition, which includes an ethnic Albanian party, was at pains to insist its operation was not meant as an attack on all ethnic Albanians, fearing a rise in ethnic tensions.
Nikola Dmitrov, security advisor to the president, said: "Military action has been taken against terrorists, no matter what their ethnic origin."
Imer Imeri, leader of the Albanian opposition party for Democracy and Prosperity, called on Macedonian authorities "to stop the police and army actions against the civilian population" but also urged "the Albanian guerrillas to lay down their arms in the interests of peace and stability in Macedonia."
Meanwhile, in neighboring southern Serbia, Belgrade's troops entered two sectors of a tense buffer zone with Kosovo Sunday. The zone, set up to prevent clashes between NATO forces and the Yugoslavs, has become a base for a rebel group bent on annexing the territory to Kosovo.
Yugoslav troops, with NATO backing, have already occupied the southernmost tip of the zone in a bid to cut off ethnic Albanian separatists in the border strip from shipping arms to the rebels in Macedonia.
Germany said that it has sent 130 extra soldiers to Kosovo to reinforce German KFOR patrols on the Macedonian border.
More than 6,000 German soldiers are serving with KFOR, some 1,000 of them stationed in Macedonia, with about 200 at the German logistics base near Tetovo, reports CNN.
German tanks moved last weekend from their base in Kosovo to protect the Tetovo camp.
Ethnic Albanian Kosovars, most of whom still hate and fear their Slavic neighbors after their experiences under Slobodan Milosevic's brutal regime, have been shocked by the Macedonian and Serbian advances towards their territory, which is a U.N. protectorate.
In Pristina, leaders of three main Albanian political parties warned Macedonia that its military offensive against the rebels could lead to a war that could engulf the whole region.
In addition, Sunday's Macedonian offensive came despite pleas from world leaders, including Western leaders, to show restraint in dealing with the rebels, reports CNN.
"If Skopje does not halt [its offensive], it will spark a war with terrible consequences for the whole region," said Skender Hyseni, the spokesman for the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo.
The three parties, which have been criticized for their failure to condemn the UCK, on Friday bowed to international pressure and signed a declaration calling on the rebels to "lay down their arms."
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