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Macedonia resumes rebel offensiveSKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonian forces are continuing their offensive against ethnic-Albanian rebels in mountains north-east of the capital, Skopje. A special session of Macedonia's parliament is due to be convened on Friday to discuss the country's worsening crisis, amid fears of fresh bloodshed. Reuters said smoke was seen billowing from the village of Vakcince after several mortars were fired on Friday morning. A convoy carrying between 150 to 200 special police troops entered the neighbouring town of Kumanovo, accompanied by an armoured personnel carrier.
On Thursday, Macedonian helicopter gunships and artillery unleashed fire in an area where ethnic-Albanian rebels had ambushed an army patrol, killing two soldiers. Vowing to "eliminate the Albanian terrorists" near the northern city of Kumanovo, the authorities ordered residents in 11 nearby villages to leave their homes. Macedonian officials accuse the rebels of holding more than 2,000 people as "human shields" against government forces. Stveo Pendarovski, of the Macedonian Interior Ministry, told CNN: "At least 2,000 women and children are in the front line. Because of that we are careful in approaching the villages, and have hit only legitimate targets." At one stage on Thursday, two heavily-armed, Soviet-built Mi-24 helicopters circled over the village of Vakcince, northeast of the capital, firing rockets at houses and a nearby forest in mid-afternoon. There were no reports of casualties and Macedonia's two main ruling parties, representing its majority Slav and minority ethnic Albanian communities, have appealed for calm and restraint by all sides. The offensive began hours after two soldiers were killed and a third reportedly kidnapped in a rebel ambush. Last weekend, eight soldiers died in another ambush. Macedonian television said the army was using "all available means" against the insurgents. "They are shelling indiscriminately in the villages and some houses are already on fire," a leader of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) who goes by the name Commander Hoxha told The Associated Press. Ali Ahmeti, the political head of the NLA, told the Voice of America radio station, that there was fierce fighting in the villages around Kumanovo, and that villagers who had not left were taking cover in basements and underground shelters. The rebels issued a statement calling for a cease-fire and urging President Boris Trajkovski to start talks to prevent the bloodshed and "maybe civil war." Trajkovski told CNN: "These people don't care about killing innocent civilians. They are not rebels, they are terrorists. "But we have exercised the utmost restraint in tackling them." NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said: "I am appalled by the killings and the cowardly attacks against security forces and am concerned over the rising tension. "These incidents risk undermining the peace in a country that is a successful example of a well-functioning democracy in the Balkans." In a sign of growing international concern, European Union sources said that EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana would visit Macedonia on Sunday after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Sweden. "The European Union strongly condemns the renewed acts of violence by ethnic Albanian extremists ... including the killing of two soldiers, the occupation of several villages and the taking of hostages," the EU said in a statement. "The European Union calls upon the extremists to stop the violence, to release the hostages and withdraw immediately." Trajkovski, who was in the U.S. this week where he met Secretary of State Colin Powell, has called for "clear signals, messages and actions" by the international community to eliminate the "roots" of the extremist problem. He urged a more robust effort on the part of NATO troops in Kosovo to round up the armed rebels in the province before they reach Macedonia and to stamp out cross-border organised crime, which in large part funds the insurgency. In Washington, the State Department said on Thursday it "strongly condemns" the "unprovoked" killing of two Macedonian soldiers and the kidnapping of a third by ethnic Albanian extremists near the border with Serbia. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also condemned the holding of hostages in the area by the "so-called National Liberation Army, which has threatened civilians and deliberately puts civilians into jeopardy." "We support the measured response of the Macedonian armed forces to such terrorist violence," Boucher said, adding the United States continues to urge the Macedonian government to avoid civilian casualties as they take "necessary steps to uphold the rule of law." Trajkovski urged Powell to officially designate the NLA as a terrorist organisation. Although it is not designated as an "official" terrorist organisation in the State Department's recent Patterns of Global Terrorism report, the NLA was condemned for its violence against Macedonian forces and was warned that it could be upgraded to an official terrorist group if it continued attacks. "We call them terrorists, and what they are doing fits the definition of a terrorist," one senior State Department official said. "We are making a conscious effort to show what we think and what the international community thinks of them." The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
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