KUCKOVO, Macedonia — Using artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships, Macedonia's military launched a fresh offensive Wednesday to clear ethnic Albanian insurgents from remaining strongholds along the border with Kosovo. The rebels vowed to fight back.
The principal target of the latest government push against the rebels was the village of Gracane. Macedonian police at their front line in Kuckovo, just across a ridge, said the village had been emptied of civilians before the bombardment began.
The push came a day after Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski declared victory over the rebels and hinted that negotiations could now take place for constitutional changes demanded by the country's ethnic Albanians, who are outnumbered by Slavs three to one.
Infantry troops on Wednesday moved past the police lines, and shelling continued sporadically over several hours. The Macedonian forces rolled in tanks and armored personnel carriers, and two helicopter gunships hovered overhead.
"This is our final operation to . . . establish control of this stretch of land," said government spokesman Antonio Milososki. "We want to create conditions for continuation of political dialogue."
But the rebels denounced the offensive. Commander Sokoli, one of several regional rebel leaders, told The Associated Press the rebels were outraged that the government continued to attack despite their offer of a cease-fire.
He also expressed frustration that international mediators visiting Macedonia this week refused to include their side in any talks on resolving the crisis.
"We declared a cease-fire, but the Macedonians are provoking us," Sokoli said. "We are ready to fight a war in the areas we control."
Sokoli's anger seemed directed at the EU's security affairs chief, Javier Solana, and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, who visited Macedonia this week to praise the government's handling of the crisis.
The rebels, who say they are fighting for greater rights and recognition for the former Yugoslav republic's minority ethnic Albanians, have taken up new positions in and around Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city, Sokoli said.
"We have more volunteers," he said, contending that the rebels were gaining in strength. It was not immediately possible to corroborate the claim.
The area under attack in Wednesday's army offensive stretched from the village of Lipkovo to the east, to the village of Brest to the west, including insurgent strongholds such as Gracane, Malino Mala and Gosince. Artillery booms could be heard six miles away in the capital, Skopje.
Fighting also occurred in the area Tuesday, when government troops attempted to take the Caska mountain pass.
Both NATO and the European Union have been urging the Macedonian government to open a dialogue with the ethnic Albanian community to provide a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
But the government has refused to talk with the rebels, describing them as "terrorists."
In Kosovo, the NATO-led peacekeeping force said it was doing its part to weaken the insurrection across the border in Macedonia.
A spokesman, Squadron Leader Richard J. Heffer, said peacekeepers sent to the border had intercepted five automatic weapons, some 10,000 rounds of ammunition, seven anti-tank weapons, around 100 rounds of recoilless rifle ammunition and about 60 land mines over the past month
Additionally, the peacekeepers detained around 200 suspected insurgents coming from or going toward Macedonia, he told reporters.
Reinforcements being sent to the border will "conduct aggressive cordon and search operations, operate check points, and man observation positions in order to detect, disrupt and deter any possible illegal cross-border activity by Albanian extremists," said Heffer.
Hundreds of refugees have fled the fighting, escaping mortar barrages by walking up steep hills for hours to reach the border with Kosovo, Yugoslavia's southern province.
Military officials described the action as being in its final stages. Nikola Dimitrov, the presidential security adviser, warned that "urban terrorism" remained a threat, but did not elaborate.