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Albanian Rebels Threaten to Attack Macedonian Capital
Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia threatened Sunday to attack the country's capital of Skopje if government forces do not stop firing at their positions in the northern mountain areas by Monday morning, Albania's ATA news agency reported.
A commander of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), nicknamed Hoxha, made the announcement in an ultimatum to Macedonian Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski.
Hoxha warned that if by Monday morning government forces do not halt offensives against the rebel fronts in the north, the NLA would "stage assaults against Skopje with the airport, oil refineries, government organs and police stations as main targets. " The NLA troops would start their offensive from the mountain areas near the capital to bombard the airport with 120mm mortars��Hoxha said.
Another ATA report quoted a statement from the Macedonian Defense Ministry as saying that the government troops Sunday launched a fierce attack against the rebels holed up in the northern village of Slupcani. One soldier was killed and three others wounded.
The security forces have currently surrounded 1,000 NLA soldiers entrenched in Aracinovo Village, only 10 kilometers from Skopje, and are waiting for further orders.
Many people fled Skopje in the last two days as police blocked roads around a suburb to prevent ethnic Albanian militants from seizing control of land near the capital.
The office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Pristina, capital of the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, said on Sunday that around 7,000 refugees fled Macedonia's northern areas to neighboring Kosovo since Saturday.
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