Serbs Recapture Mine in Kosovo Seized by Ethnic Albanian Rebels

Serbian security forces recaptured a coal mine that provides power to much of Kosovo in a withering offensive against rebels Tuesday that sent thousands of villagers streaming into the woods west of Pristina, the provincial capital.

The heavy fighting in recent days has dimmed chances of a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in the southern Serbian province. Also Tuesday, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said in Oslo that the ethnic Albanian rebels have no clear military chain of command with which to negotiate a cease-fire.

The Serb-led Yugoslav army and Serbian police took the Belacevac open-pit mine near the end of a second day of pulverizing attacks on an area that the ethnic Albanians’ Kosovo Liberation Army captured last week.

More than 300 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have died in Kosovo since Serbian security forces launched an offensive Feb. 28 to try to halt growing resistance to Serbian rule.