Gunfire, explosions in Macedonia as police battle 'armed group'

[Little Tich]

Source: Reuters

Five police officers died and dozens were wounded in a daylong gun battle in an ethnic Albanian suburb of northern Macedonia on Saturday, adding the threat of armed conflict to a deep political crisis rocking the ex-Yugoslav republic.

The Balkan country's interior ministry said an unspecified number of gunmen were also killed, but that it had no information on civilian casualties during clashes that began before dawn and stretched into the evening.

Police said that acting on information about an "armed group" they had launched an operation in an ethnic Albanian district of the northern town of Kumanovo 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital Skopje. The region saw heavy fighting during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001.

Units of special police in armored vehicles locked down the neighborhood and helicopters circled overhead. A Reuters photographer reported hearing heavy automatic gunfire and loud explosions. Black smoke rose over the town and residents were seen leaving the area carrying belongings.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/09/us-macedonia-police-idUSKBN0NU06X20150509

[SunSeeker]

1. The Albanians want to turn Macedonia into Kosovo.

Hopefully this time we will not help them.

[Diclotican]

2. Little Tich

Little Tich


That thing have been brewing for years now - at least since Kosovo was made independent of Serbia in 1999/2000 - some albanians have had the ambition of making part of what is today FYR Macedonia depart from the country - because of a albanian minority - and because they claim the area to be a ancestry part of a greater Albanian State.. The same is the case in part of Hellas, who also have a albanian minority - and where nationalists also claim the area should be part of a greater albanian state... I guess we will get a new hot summer on the balkans - where insurgences will be on the rise for the whole summer - before it end i a stalemate as neither the insurgences or the government are strong enough to really get off the impass...

Diocletian

[Little Tich]

4. The area is too small for any “greater” nations, whether it's Albania, Serbia, Croatia or Macedonia.

I hope there is a way to de-escalate the whole thing.

[Diclotican]

6. Little Tich

Little Tich


The balkans is small compared to the rest of Europe - but the size of the balkans, are not the same as some would have the ambitions to make a "greater" state of whatever nation who they feel have the birthright to a territory - and after Cosovo was kind of Liberated" from Serbia - and was recognized as a sovereign nation - even if it will take years to get the country on track, even after 15 years - it is not the same as more nationalistic albanians believe they have the right to unite all albanians under one roof, so to say - and that every nation who have a minority of albanians on them, should give the greater Albanian state its territory - some who have been disputed for centuries - maybe even millimeniums.... And some of the current albanians, claim to be be the direct descendants of the original Illyrian people who once had a nation in this area of Balkan - and therefore have the eternal rights of the area... Even if it is no direct evidence about it - as you have 2 millenniums of people moving in and out of the area - specially in the beginning of the dark ages, 280-500 AD, where you just a few sources about what was happening...

And, sad to say - I doubt it will be easy to de-escalate this, as this have been brewing for years, many of the different nations in the area known as the Balkans have Territorial disputes with each others - But for the most part it have been kept under lid - mostly because a war would be more devastating than a complicated peace would be.. But Balkan have always been a brewing ground for trouble - just ask everyone who have had control over the area - that be the greeks - the romans, the Byzantines - the ottomans - and even the Austrian-Hungary empire...

Diclotican

[Bosonic]

3. Seems to be escalated beyond a police response now

[Bosonic]

5. Macedonia gunfight leaves eight police, 14 gunmen dead

Macedonia gunfight leaves eight police, 14 gunmen dead

Kumanovo (Macedonia) (AFP) - Shooting broke out for a second day on Sunday in northern Macedonia after clashes in the restive Balkan nation left at least eight officers and 14 gunmen dead, police said.

"Eight police officers were killed and 37 were injured" in shooting in the city of Kumanovo that began Saturday at dawn, a police spokesman said, adding that 14 bodies in uniforms were also found, allegedly those of members of a "terrorist group".

As the crisis-hit country declared two days of mourning, the European Union warned of the danger of escalation in a part of the nation hit by an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001.

The clashes have been blamed by the government on fighters from across the border. One in four Macedonians is an ethnic Albanian.

http://news.yahoo.com/sixth-police-officer-dies-macedonia-clashes-001439329.html