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Newsman, villager killed in Kosovo border shelling
A Kosovo Albanian and a British journalist were killed on Thursday when shellfire from Macedonia hit a village inside Kosovo.
A Kosovo Albanian and a British journalist were killed on Thursday when shellfire from Macedonia hit a village inside Kosovo.
It was by far the most serious spillover incident in two weeks of intense shelling close to the border with the U.N.-administered Yugoslav province as Macedonian forces try to drive ethnic Albanian insurgents from their territory. The dead were named as Baki Krasniqi, a 19-year-old Kosovo Albanian, and Kerem Lawton, 30, of Britain, a producer for Associated Press Television News (APTN).
The pair were killed near the village of Krivenik. Local people said the fire came from Macedonian forces, who have been trying to flush out an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group operating near the Kosovo border.
A witness said the APTN crew had arrived at Krivenik and a cameraman had got out of their vehicle to film while Lawton parked. As he did so, a shell hit the vehicle.
The Associated Press said the cameraman, Syllejman Klokoqi, was unharmed.
In all at least 20 civilians were injured in Krivenik, a hilltop village close to the border. Troops of NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo also had a narrow escape in a similar incident.
Macedonian forces have been shelling ethnic Albanian guerrillas around the village of Gracani on their side of the border for five days. They denied responsibility for Thursday's deaths.
"The commander of operations in the Gracani area has said no Macedonian forces have used fire against targets inside Kosovo," said Defense Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov. "We have sent a special investigative commission to the area."
Asked who else might be responsible, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said: "Everything is possible, this is a dirty war."
Last Friday, Trendafilov acknowledged that Macedonia had struck across the border on at least one occasion. "It's true that we attacked targets inside Kosovo because they were fortifying positions to launch a grenade attack on our security force," he said.
An ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander fighting near the Kosovo border said NATO must know who fired the shells.
"Finding out who fired is very simple and can be verified very simply by NATO forces, by analyzing the trajectory of the shells," the man code-named Sokoli told Reuters by telephone.
"We do not have heavy artillery. The biggest caliber we have is 82mm," Sokoli said, apparently referring to a mortar.
Bureau Report
It was by far the most serious spillover incident in two weeks of intense shelling close to the border with the U.N.-administered Yugoslav province as Macedonian forces try to drive ethnic Albanian insurgents from their territory. The dead were named as Baki Krasniqi, a 19-year-old Kosovo Albanian, and Kerem Lawton, 30, of Britain, a producer for Associated Press Television News (APTN).
The pair were killed near the village of Krivenik. Local people said the fire came from Macedonian forces, who have been trying to flush out an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group operating near the Kosovo border.
A witness said the APTN crew had arrived at Krivenik and a cameraman had got out of their vehicle to film while Lawton parked. As he did so, a shell hit the vehicle.
The Associated Press said the cameraman, Syllejman Klokoqi, was unharmed.
In all at least 20 civilians were injured in Krivenik, a hilltop village close to the border. Troops of NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo also had a narrow escape in a similar incident.
Macedonian forces have been shelling ethnic Albanian guerrillas around the village of Gracani on their side of the border for five days. They denied responsibility for Thursday's deaths.
"The commander of operations in the Gracani area has said no Macedonian forces have used fire against targets inside Kosovo," said Defense Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov. "We have sent a special investigative commission to the area."
Asked who else might be responsible, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said: "Everything is possible, this is a dirty war."
Last Friday, Trendafilov acknowledged that Macedonia had struck across the border on at least one occasion. "It's true that we attacked targets inside Kosovo because they were fortifying positions to launch a grenade attack on our security force," he said.
An ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander fighting near the Kosovo border said NATO must know who fired the shells.
"Finding out who fired is very simple and can be verified very simply by NATO forces, by analyzing the trajectory of the shells," the man code-named Sokoli told Reuters by telephone.
"We do not have heavy artillery. The biggest caliber we have is 82mm," Sokoli said, apparently referring to a mortar.
Bureau Report