Troops, Tanks and Planes Sent to Quell Violence in Yugoslavia

The government on Thursday deployed troops, tanks and warplanes in Yugoslavia’s Kosovo province, where six more ethnic Albanians were killed in fierce clashes verging on civil war.

Belgrade Radio said Yugoslav President Janez Drnovsek will visit Kosovo today.

Troops roamed the Serbian-controlled province on Thursday, the official Tanjug news agency said, and air force jets flew low over the provincial capital, Pristina.

Reporters saw 15 tanks in a village near Pristina and later saw tanks and trucks heading toward an army base near the capital.

Officials said Thursday that 19 people, including a policeman, have been killed and 98 people hurt since ethnic Albanians took to the streets Jan. 24 to demand greater autonomy, free elections, the resignation of regional leaders and the release of political prisoners. But reporters on the scene said more than 30 people have been killed.

On Thursday, a teen-age girl was killed during a gunfight with police in a village near Podujevo, north of Pristina. Another Podujevo villager said his 25-year-old son was shot and killed by an army officer.

One person was killed in clashes between police and about 500 protesters in the village of Magura, Belgrade Radio said. Zagreb television reported three other deaths without giving details.

Tanjug said the most serious clashes took place in Podujevo, Pristina and Djarkovica and in villages close to the town of Titova Mitvrovica, where thousands of Albanians gathered for the funeral of two men killed Tuesday.