The Macedonian army launched a major offensive to push ethnic Albanian guerrillas back from the very edge of the capital Skopje on Friday, blasting rebel positions in a string of villages in the capital's hinterland.
The sudden dawn offensive, using helicopter gunship strikes and tank and artillery barrage, buried a fragile truce between the army and the guerrillas, as peace talks in capital faltered and NATO Secretary General George Robertson warned the multi-ethnic Balkans state was "close to civil war".
A rebel commander in the suburban town of Aracinovo -- which was seized on June 8 by ethnic Albanians of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) -- said three civilians had been killed and 18 wounded in the attack.
Commander Hoxha threatened to retaliate with a mortar attack on the capital, whose center is less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from Aracinovo.
Another rebel leader, Commander Sokoli, said the offensive showed "the Macedonian government wants civil war.”
But government spokesman Antonio Milososki said the "anti-terrorist action" was designed to remove the direct rebel threat to Skopje and help political leaders negotiate a settlement.
Such a settlement is a prerequisite for NATO to make good its pledge to send in some 3,000 troops to help disarm the NLA.
"The main purpose is to protect Skopje, its citizens and diplomats, as well as NATO troops at the airport," Milososki said.
The airport, which lies 10 kilometers south of Aracinovo, is a logistical hub for NATO peacekeeping operations in neighboring Kosovo, with the highway to Skopje passing just a couple of kilometers in front of Aracinovo.
Macedonian tanks fired down on Aracinovo from overlooking hills and surrounding fields on Friday, while Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter gunships strafed rebel positions.
National television showed pictures of a tank, backed by four armored troop carriers, blasting a rebel roadblock at the entrance to Aracinovo just after two gunmen had scuttled across the road behind it.
Smoke could be seen rising from several positions on the edge of Aracinovo and several houses were in flames.
The army also launched sweeping attacks on villages held by the NLA since early May and which form a line stretching along the foothills from a point just north of Skopje to the Serbian border.
The dawn attack appeared to be a concerted onslaught by the security forces to cut off the Aracinovo rebel force, as helicopters targeted NLA weapons dumps in two villages just north of the suburb.
Commander Hoxha told AFP by telephone his forces had returned fire on army positions toward the northern city of Kumanovo and in the direction of Skopje.
The Macedonian army had promised to act with restraint during the five-day peace talks which collapsed on Wednesday but had never officially declared a ceasefire, saying it would still act to cut off rebel supply lines.
The strains of the drawn-out talks -- between the Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties in the fragile government of national unity -- emerged this week when Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski stormed out of a committee overseeing the implementation of the military side of the peace plan.
Boskovski accused fellow parties of being too soft on the rebels and said the army should take back occupied territory without waiting for international intervention.
President Boris Trajkovski said on Wednesday the negotiations had foundered on Albanian demands to split the country into two federal units based on ethnicity, which he refused.
The European Union's top foreign affairs representative, Javier Solana, jetted into Skopje on Thursday to urge all the parties to resume talks and agree on reforms to address Albanian complaints of discrimination by the Macedonian Slav majority.
Solana said after talks with Trajkovski and party leaders he was "optimistic" that talks would resume, while Imer Imeri, head of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, said a cross-party meeting had taken place late on Thursday.
Government spokesman Milososki said the talks could resume later on Friday.
"There's no reason to stop," he said.
President Trajkovski has offered Macedonian-born NLA fighter an amnesty if they hand over their guns to a possible NATO force in Macedonia, though the rebels have yet to respond to the proposal, which would not extend to their leaders.
The rebels want a place in Western-backed talks among Slav and Albanian politicians to improve the lot of the large Albanian minority.
Trajkovski has ruled out any such participation -- NEAR ARACINOVO, Macedonia (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
