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A KFOR peacekeeper patrols Gnjilane, in Kosovo, on Tuesday  MILITARY PLAN:  ALSO: European ministers 'appalled' by scenes of alleged Kosovo atrocities U.S. warplanes come home Kosovo conflict maims Albanian-American fighter  MESSAGE BOARD: Rebuilding Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

June 23, 1999
Web posted at: 6:16 p.m. EDT (2216 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A group of armed men shot at U.S. Marines at a checkpoint in southeastern Kosovo on Wednesday. The Marines returned fire, killing one of the attackers and wounding two others, U.S. officials said. One gunman was detained.

No Marines were injured in the shootout, the commander of U.S. forces in Kosovo, Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock, told reporters in a telephone interview from his Kosovo headquarters.

Craddock initially said two people were killed, but Pentagon officials later revised the death toll to one. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.

About 20 to 30 Marines were standing at a checkpoint near the village of Zegra, south of Gnjilane, where the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit is making its Kosovo headquarters, when they came under fire from assailants hiding in a building, Craddock said.

The Marines returned fire, and the attackers holed up inside the building, surrounded by Marines and helicopter gunships. The gunmen later surrendered.

It was unclear whether the men were Serbs or ethnic Albanians. They were wearing civilian clothes and armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

Sources at the National Security Council said the assailants were apparently drunk, prompting one official to say: "It is never a good idea to tangle with Marines, particularly when drunk."

The incident marked the second time U.S. forces have come under fire during their peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Craddock said the first case was Monday night, when soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, operating near the city of Urosevac, were fired upon but not injured.

In that earlier incident, the U.S. soldiers had seen people firing into the air and approached the scene.

When the people with the guns saw the Americans approach, "they turned and fired at them," but no Americans were hit, Craddock said.

Three people were taken into custody; they claimed no affiliations.

Correspondent Carl Rochelle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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