Huge weapons haul linked to terror suspects in Macedonia The Associated Press Friday, November 9, 2007 http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8269297
SKOPJE, Macedonia: Authorities are seeking charges of terrorism against 13 suspected ethnic Albanian extremists who the government says were arrested this week with a massive weapons cache that included anti-aircraft missiles and artillery pieces. Six suspected extremists were killed and 13 arrested Wednesday in gun battles with special police officers in and around the mountain village of Brodec near Macedonia's border with Kosovo, according to police. The volatile area was the center of an 2001 uprising by ethnic Albanian rebels. Police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said Friday the government would recommend that charges of terrorism and activities against the state be filed against the suspects - all men - and four accomplices who evaded arrest. Authorities said weapons, seized after the gun battle, were sufficient to equip a battalion of 650 soldiers. They included laser-guided anti-aircraft missiles, artillery pieces, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, sniper rifles, assault rifles, dynamite, hand grenades, mortars and thousands of bullets, police said. The weapons were found Wednesday and Thursday in houses in Brodec, and in buried caches outside the village. "This is the largest amount of weaponry ever seized (in Macedonia), with huge destructive power," Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska said Friday. Macedonian police launched the operation to capture Lirim Jakupi, an ethnic Albanian former rebel who escaped from prison in Kosovo two months ago. But Jakupi evaded arrest. Police described the gunmen with him as members of a "criminal gang" but on Friday suggested their motives may have been political. "The seized bombs, grenades and mortars clearly show the criminal gang planned larger operations," a police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to comment on the case. Authorities said they could not say where the weapons had come from and have not identified all the gunmen killed. Police spokesman Kotevski said one of the gun battle victims was ethnic Albanian fugitive Ramadan Shiti, who had also escaped from a Kosovo prison. He said Shiti committed suicide, placing a hand grenade under his body when he discovered he was surrounded. Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of Macedonia's 2 million people. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
