Macedonia moves against militants

Macedonian police traded gunfire with ethnic Albanian militants in the country's volatile northern region on Sunday, killing several men in what authorities described as a major sweep against groups considered a threat to the Balkan country's fragile peace.

Special police units, backed up by the army, launched the operation "for neutralizing and arresting" the militants near the village of Brest, some 20km north of the capital Skopje, a Defense Ministry statement said.

"Several members of the armed group died during the operation," the statement said. It did not specify how many died, but said government security forces suffered no casualties.

In a statement posted in its Web site, a shadowy ethnic Albanian group, the Albanian National Army, said two members of the group and one civilian were killed and five others were injured in Sunday's gunbattle.

Authorities sealed off villages near Brest last week while searching for Avdil Jakupi, a fugitive wanted for briefly abducting a police officer and a civilian. Though Sunday's action took place only a few kilometers from last week's search operation, authorities declined to confirm that Jakupi and his men where the target of the action.

Jakupi is believed to be a leader in the self-styled Albanian National Army, a group which claimed responsibility for several attacks in Macedonia, neighboring Serbia and Kosovo over the past year. It advocates the unification of ethnic Albanian-dominated territories in several countries in the Balkans.

International officials, such as the EU peace mission and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), moved close to the area to observe the operation.

"The aim is to deal with armed criminal groups," said Isabelle De Ruyt, the OSCE spokeswoman. "The OSCE is supporting the operation."

Ethnic Albanians account for nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people and live mostly in the country's north and northwest. An insurgency in 2001 threatened to break up the country, but ethnic Albanian rebels agreed to disarm in exchange for broader rights and a degree of self-rule for their community.