Blast rocks market in Macedonia

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A powerful explosion has ripped through the northwestern Macedonian city of Tetovo.

Responsibility for the Sunday's blast was claimed by a an ethnic Albanian militant group.

Macedonian police said an explosive device was detonated near the market in Tetovo, but no one was injured.

"It was a strong explosive device of an unidentified type. Several shops were damaged, we are carrying out an investigation now," police spokesman Vasko Sutarov told The Associated Press.

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Alban Berisha, a spokesman for a new militant group calling itself the Albanian National Army, told AP that his organisation had carried out the blast.

He said: "This is a response to (interior minister Ljube) Boskovski's claims that we are nonexistent and a phantom organization."

Acknowledging that his group had only about 50 fighters, Berisha nonetheless said they were well-trained and equipped and were "more than enough to wage a guerrilla war in Macedonia."

He also announced "more similar actions during next week."

The explosion came a day after Macedonian police and ethnic Albanian rebels traded gunfire near the village of Preljubiste, just outside a tense area where three policemen were slain earlier in the week.

The Albanian National Army earlier threatened a new insurgency, saying that it had "started the war for the liberation of all Albanian territories in former Yugoslavia," an allusion to Macedonia's former status as a Yugoslav republic.

Another, much larger militant group -- the National Liberation Army -- began fighting in February for greater rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, but agreed to end its struggle in August when a peace deal expanding their rights was reached.

Defence Ministry spokesman Marjan Gjurovski called the Albanian National Army a danger to national security.

In an earlier statement, the group declared "all predominantly (ethnic) Albanian areas restricted for Macedonian forces," adding that "all such forces will be attacked without warning if they try to enter."