Suspects in NATO killing arrested

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Eight youths have been arrested in Macedonia over the death of a British NATO soldier in August.

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British army Sapper Ian Collins, 21, died on August 27, a day after the vehicle he was driving near Skopje was hit by what British and other NATO officials said was a chunk of concrete.

A ministry statement said the suspects, all 17 and 18 years old, were charged with "serious acts against overall security."

The statement said: "They committed an attack with stones on the vehicle and property of NATO forces."

A spokesman could not say what the maximum penalty for conviction was.

He told Reuters news agency that manslaughter charges had not been pressed because the "thrown rock was not the cause of death but rather the car crash that resulted." Collins was attacked as fellow NATO soldiers began a 30-day mission to collect weapons voluntarily from ethnic Albanian guerrillas under a peace plan in Macedonia.

He was the first and so far only casualty in the 4,500-strong disarmament mission, which winds up next week.