Hunkering close to armored vehicles for cover, government troops exchanged fire with ethnic Albanian insurgents in the foothills above Tetovo yesterday as an offensive to push the rebels away from Macedonia's second-largest city gained ground.
In the closest fighting yet since the start of the conflict six weeks ago, the two sides engaged each other near Gajre, in the hills just northwest of Tetovo.
By early afternoon, led by seven armored personnel carriers and two tanks, Macedonian troops had moved into Gajre, breaking through a rebel roadblock and apparently forcing the guerrillas to pull back.
Houses and cars were burning in the village, as troops blasted suspected rebels hideouts. Two helicopters strafed the hillsides.
After taking the village, the troops regrouped and set up positions overlooking Llavce, another rebel-held village just north of Gajre.
The government advance was preceded by an early-morning mortar barrage meant to soften up the insurgents before the army's advance into the foothills. Amid the thud of exploding rounds, a convoy of armored personnel carriers rumbled down the center of downtown Tetovo just before 6am turning toward Gajre, 4km outside the center of Tetovo.
Three Soviet-era T-55 tanks also later moved through the downtown area, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke as they drove through the city's Slavic neighborhoods. People in those areas gathered on street corners and cheered as the tracks clattered down the cobblestone streets.
As they approached Gajre, the personnel carriers stopped and about 200 soldiers disembarked and fanned out behind them. Other vehicles pulled six 155mm cannons up the hill. Two government helicopters hovered overhead.
The troops looked nervous but determined. "We are fighting for Macedonia," said one soldier who refused to give his name. "For everybody here."
But ethnic Albanian residents expressed outrage at the army attack, asserting that the assault was targeting innocent civilians instead of insurgent positions.
"They think that every house is a bunker," said Nuri Junozic, 46.
Hanife Zeciri, 50, said she would not leave, no matter what the army did.
"From my house no one takes me away," she said.
Although ethnic relations with the majority Slavs have been relatively trouble-free, substantial numbers of the ethnic Albanian minority feel they are being treated as second-class citizens. The struggle appears to have radicalized a large segment of Macedonian Albanians.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique