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Shooting near Kosovo border, Serbia says

Sharpshooter
A Serbian elite police force sharpshooter takes aim near the Kosovo buffer zone  

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- Ethnic Albanians have opened fire on Yugoslav army positions just outside a buffer zone near the Kosovo border in southern Serbia, Serb officials have said.

Yugoslav Information Minister Zoran Zivkovic told Beta news agency that a street gun battle on the outskirts of the village of Veliki Trnovac near the Kosovo border lasted about an hour on Wednesday.

He added, that two Albanians -- but no Yugoslavs -- were injured in the firing, but the soldiers were pushed back about 150 metres from its position by the intense fighting.

The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force, which patrols the boundary, had no immediate information on the report.

But Albanian sources said Serb forces had launched the attack using 120 millimetre rounds of ammunition.

Tahir Dalipi, a member of the political council which backs the separatists, said the injured two were civilians.

He added: "When you have two opposing sides very close to each other, it's very easy to come to clashes.

"This is another warning, especially for the international community, to deal seriously with the issue of the Presevo Valley."

The fighting appeared to be the most serious in the area since last November when four Serb police were killed.

The Yugoslav Government press centre in the nearby town of Bujanovac added that the ethnic Albanian gunmen opened fire from houses.

It added: "The Yugoslav Army strongly responded to the attack" but because of its strength the soldiers pulled back 150 metres from a checkpoint on the Bujanovac-Veliki Trnovac road.

The area bordering Kosovo, which has a substantial Albanian population, has seen an increase in fighting between Serb police and ethic Albanian separatists over the past year.

Dalipi and Serbian state television in the area both said the Albanians had mounted a separate attack on Wednesday on the village of Lucane from inside the five kilometres (three mile)- wide Ground Safety Zone.

State television said the attack was still under way at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) and that the separatists had used heavy machine guns and mortars. It said one house was hit and two mortars each fell on a hill and inside the village.

The ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, known as the UCPMB, was formed about a year ago on the Serbian side of the boundary, saying it was fighting police repression in the area.

Serb authorities have criticised the group accusing it of being bent on uniting the area with internationally-run Kosovo.

The group has driven Serb police out of several villages in the buffer zone, set up after Yugoslav forces left Kosovo in June 1999 and NATO-led peacekeepers moved into the province.

Only lightly armed local police are allowed in the zone.

NATO also did not have information on the second report of violence.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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