Macedonia on alert after killings

Macedonian soldiers carry the coffin of a comrade killed in an ambush

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia has beefed up its military presence near the Kosovo border and decreed Monday a day of mourning after eight of its security forces were killed.

The government announced a crackdown after four policemen and four soldiers were shot on Saturday while carrying out a routine patrol near the village of Vejce in the northwest of the republic.

President Boris Trajkovski said in a television broadcast on Sunday that his government would show "no mercy" in its efforts to root out those responsible.

"It is time now to...unite the political forces and all the citizens of Macedonia so that terrorism is defeated," he said.

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Interior Minister Dosta Dimovska told the Associated Press of "indications that there might be more such terrorist incursions from Kosovo in the upcoming period."

The government is to send military reinforcements to the region, but would not reveal how many additional soldiers would go, the Associated Press reported.

Helicopters circled over Tetovo, the country's second largest city, on Sunday while police extended an existing curfew in place since February to begin at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) and to end at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT).

State television stopped broadcasts of overnight Albanian-language newscasts, saying they incited "militant extremism."

The Macedonian government called on NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo to increase control of the borders, but NATO had already announced it is to boost its military presence on the Kosovo border in the wake of the attack.

NATO has ordered more helicopters and foot patrols "to prevent any illegal crossing and illegal activity," spokesman Major Axel Jandesek said.

The shooting was the first serious incident since Macedonian security forces quelled a month-long uprising by ethnic Albanian separatists, driving them from hills in northern Macedonia in late March.

It is also the highest death toll in a single attack since hostilities broke out in February.

An interior ministry statement said militants had crossed into Macedonia from Kosovo, attacking a four-vehicle patrol between the villages of Selce and Vejce using grenade launchers, hand grenades and automatic rifles.

Six members of the elite "Wolves" security unit were also injured in the ambush, a military spokesman said.

The area was quiet on Sunday but passions ran high at the funeral of one of those killed in the ambush.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said three soldiers were hurt when their vehicle hit a landmine in an Albanian part of a buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo, and urged rebels to lay down their arms.

Condemnation for attack

Trajkovski cancelled a trip to Romania in response to the violence, but was still expected to travel to Washington this week. The U.S. trip was agreed on during Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Macedonia earlier this month.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana condemned the deaths, saying violence had no role in negotiations.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said: "I condemn the cowardly acts of the extremists and my message is simple: the violence must end and their tactics will not be successful."

Officials did not name any particular group as being responsible for the attack.

The ethnic Albanian party in the ruling coalition said it was horrified by "this mindless killing" which it said endangered efforts to improve the rights of Macedonia's Albanians, who form about a third of the country's population.

Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of the National Liberation Army ethnic Albanian separatist force, told Reuters he was still collecting information on the incident but maintained his forces had not attacked.

"Most likely, our forces only resisted in self-defence," he said.

Macedonia has won strong Western backing for its fight against the rebels, but it is also under international pressure to make concessions to ethnic Albanians.

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