Army, Rebels Clash Anew in Macedonia

Detonations shook the hills above Tetovo on Wednesday, marking the resumption of fighting between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the army near Macedonia’s second-largest city.

Government authorities recently declared the rebels defeated in the northern region, but the sounds of battle reflected the insurgents’ continued strength despite several major government offensives against them.

On Tuesday, eight policemen were wounded near the village of Lisec when their cars were targeted by mortar fire, police said. Six remained in the hospital Wednesday.

The sounds of fighting ceased before noon above Tetovo, and low clouds and rain hung over the mountaintops.

“The situation is now calm but still unclear,” said Col. Blagoja Markovski, an army spokesman, suggesting that poor visibility had led to the lull.

The Kumanovo area east of Tetovo also was quiet Wednesday after clashes that lasted late into Tuesday evening. Refugees from that region spoke of a raid Monday on their village by black-clad government troops flown in by helicopter.

“They burned the houses with gasoline and lighters,” refugee Agim Hyseni said from a hospital room in the Kosovo town of Gnjilane in neighboring Yugoslavia.

Hyseni said the torchings and shell fire left the entire village of about 60 houses aflame and forced its inhabitants to flee. About 40 of them escaped to Kosovo, he said. Hyseni and other members of his family claimed that there were no guerrillas in the village.

Macedonia’s security council reviewed the crisis late Tuesday and decided that talking with the militants remained out of the question. The government has long insisted that the rebels are terrorists bent on carving off a piece of the country and uniting it with Albania or Kosovo.

The clashes followed tentative gains made by the army in clashes with insurgents in northern villages.