Rescue mission troops die in rebel ambush
Five Macedonian soldiers died in a rebel ambush while trying to evacuate troops wounded in clashes near the country’s second city.
Government spokesman Antonio Milososki said ethnic Albanian rebels first attacked a vehicle taking food to government forces last night near Tetovo in northwestern Macedonia.
The attack killed one soldier and wounded three others.
An ambulance carrying a military escort was dispatched to rescue them. But the vehicle also came under strong fire and the rebels killed four more soldiers.
No further details were immediately available about the attacks, which signals an escalation in Macedonia’s months-long conflict between Government forces and ethnic Albanian militants, who say they are fighting for broader rights for their community.
The insurgency erupted in February, claiming the lives of more than a dozen Government troops and at least as many rebels.
The Government, dominated by the majority Slavs, regards the rebels as terrorists bent on seizing control of a large piece of Macedonian territory and merging it with neighbouring Albania and the adjacent Kosovo province in southern Yugoslavia.
