Skopje police raid | |||||||
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Part of the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Macedonian police | National Liberation Army | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ljube Boškoski | Lefter Koxhaj † [1] | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Special police unit "Tigers" | Skanderbeg special unit [4] | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
200+ policemen [5] | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None [6] | 5 killed [7] [3] | ||||||
30 arrested [8] [3] 4 detained |
During the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, a raid was conducted by the Macedonian police against ethnic Albanian rebels in a suburb of Skopje on 7 August. The police killed the rebel group and captured their weapon supplies.
The Macedonian special police unit "Tigers" performed a raid on 7 August 2001, in the Skopje suburb of Čair around 4:00 a.m. (UTC+2). [5] [9] Five rebels were killed by the police in the raid. [1] National Liberation Army (NLA) commander Lefter Koxhaj, also known as Commander Teli, was among those killed. [1] [3] According to the Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boškovski, the Macedonian police acted on information that NLA rebels were planning an attack on the capital and that they would attack from the nearby village of Aračinovo, [2] the site of the Aračinovo crisis a month prior, after which they were evacuated by NATO forces. During the fighting in Aračinovo, the rebels claimed they would attack the capital city of Skopje, including the airport and oil refinery and that they had infiltrated cells ready to attack. [10] [11]
Per Boškovski, the police tried to arrest the rebels, encountered "strong armed resistance" and returned fire. [1] He reported that 30 people were arrested in the police operation. [1] The Macedonian police found a large quantity of weapons, including 6 assault rifles, 5 grenade launchers, 400 rounds of ammunition, 5 pistols, 3 grenades and combat uniforms. During the operation, four suspects were taken to the Gazi Baba police station for interrogation on suspicion of being members of the NLA. [12]
On the following day, an investigator of the Human Rights Watch who was on the scene, Peter Bouckaert, said there was no evidence of "strong armed resistance" and that the men were lying down when they were shot. [5] According to a Washington Post report: "The house looked more like the scene of a summary execution. A reporter saw no signs that the victims had fired a shot at the raiders. Windows were closed, and no bullet holes nicked the walls or ceiling. The front door had not been forced open." [13] The Albanian-language news media reported the killing as a premeditated execution, describing the scene in detail. [4] [14] The broadcasting of Albanian-language news on Macedonian Radio Television was interrupted for 23 days. [15] Two suspects who were detained were released. Another suspect was kept in custody but later released in December 2001 following a presidential amnesty for members of the NLA. [12] One suspect went missing.
Ethnic Albanian politicians acknowledged the police raid and the deaths but refused to comment. [16] Members of the NLA and ethnic Albanians claimed the men were civilians. [17] [18] On the same day the NLA attacked a Macedonian army convoy near Tetovo in what would become known as Karpalak ambush, supposedly as retaliation for the 5 Albanians killed by the police during the raid. [18]
The Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac was an Albanian militant insurgent group fighting for separation from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for three municipalities: Preševo, Medveđa, and Bujanovac, home to most of the Albanians in south Serbia, adjacent to Kosovo. Of the three municipalities, two have an ethnic Albanian majority, whilst Medveđa has a significant minority of them.
The National Liberation Army, also known as the Macedonian UÇK, was an ethnic Albanian militant militia that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Following the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, it was disarmed through the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which gave greater rights and autonomy to the state's Macedonian Albanians.
The 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgent group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and Insurgency in the Preševo Valley, attacked Macedonian security forces at the end of January 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year. There were also claims that the NLA ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the Yugoslav Wars had reached the Republic of Macedonia which had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Albanian National Army is an Albanian paramilitary organization which operates in North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. The group opposes the Ohrid Framework Agreement which ended the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia between members of the National Liberation Army and Macedonian security forces.
The Battle of Tetovo, was the largest engagement during the 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia, in which Macedonian security forces battled the National Liberation Army (NLA) for control of the city.
The Smilkovci Lake killings also called the Smilkovci Lake massacre, was the killing of five ethnic Macedonian civilians that took place on 12 April 2012. They were shot and killed at a man-made lake near the village of Smilkovci, outside the Macedonian capital Skopje. According to the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the attack was carried out with the intent to "incite fear and insecurity" and the ministry called it a "deliberate terrorist act aimed at destabilizing the country". The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights criticised the ministry for prematurely judging the suspects as guilty.
The Lions was a special police unit for fast interventions formed by the Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boškoski in 2001. It was dissolved in 2003.
The Battle of Vaksince was a military engagement between the Macedonian security forces and Albanian insurgents belonging to the NLA, which was at the time launching a campaign of guerrilla attacks against facilities of the Macedonian Government, the Macedonian Police force, and the Macedonian Armed Forces.
Operation Mountain Storm was carried out on 7 November 2007 by special police forces of the Republic of Macedonia against an armed ethnic Albanian group in the Šar Mountains of Brodec above Tetovo region.
The Karpalak ambush, referred to by Macedonians as the Karpalak massacre, was an attack carried out by the National Liberation Army (NLA) against a convoy of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM) near the village of Grupčin on 8 August 2001 during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia. Ten members of the ARM's Military Reserve Force, including two officers, were killed at Karpalak and three others were wounded. The ambush was the single deadliest incident of the conflict. It was speculated that the ambush was carried out in retaliation for a Macedonian police raid in Skopje, the day before in which five NLA insurgents were killed.
Albanian rebels ambushed a convoy of the special police unit Lions near the village of Treboš on 11 November 2001. A group known as the Albanian National Army (ANA) claimed responsibility. The ambush occurred after the war of 2001 officially ended with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement when members of the special Macedonian police forces were attacked on the road to Treboš where they were supposed to secure a mass grave, suspected of containing the bodies of 13 Macedonian civilians kidnapped by the NLA.
The Aračinovo crisis was a series of events triggered by the occupation of the village of Aračinovo, in the outskirts of the Macedonian capital Skopje, by the insurgent National Liberation Army (NLA) in June 2001 and the consequent attempts by the Macedonian army (ARM) to retake the settlement. The Macedonian attack resulted in a standoff with NATO, whose troops evacuated the besieged rebels after a ceasefire accord. The crisis is considered to be the turning point in the Macedonian war of 2001, and one of its most controversial incidents.
The battle of Raduša was part of the wider inter-ethnic conflict known as the Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia between the Albanian NLA and Macedonian security forces concentrated near the border with Kosovo. The brunt of the fighting happened near the village of Raduša and Bojane villages that guard the roads to the Rašče water supply which supplies water to the capital city of Skopje.
The Macedonian police forces had a shootout with an armed group near the village of Raduša, Macedonia, close to the Kosovo border, which was smuggling weapons. The Macedonian police recovered a large quantity of weapons and NLA uniforms in their vehicle.
The Macedonian police initiated an operation in late April 2010 to seize guarded weapon caches and bunkers near the village of Blace on the border with Kosovo. Members of the Macedonian special police unit "Tigers" conducted the raid.
The 2001 Skopje protests in Skopje, Macedonia, began after the evacuation of National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgents during the Aračinovo crisis, involvement of the international community, and the halting of the Macedonian assault of Aračinovo. Around 3,000 to 5,000 Macedonians protested against the Government of Macedonia.
The National Liberation Army (NLA) committed an attack near the village of Brest on 9 March 2001 during the insurgency in Macedonia. The NLA ambushed a Macedonian convoy, after they were defeated and forced to withdraw by KFOR troops in the village of Tanuševci.
The Battle of Matejče was a military confrontation between the National Liberation Army (NLA) and the Macedonian Army in the village of Matejče during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia. The NLA succeeded in capturing the village on 5 June 2001 and the Macedonian Army was forced to withdraw from Matejče. The Macedonian Army continued to shell Matejče until 11 June 2001.
Combatants
Harun Aliu, known as Commander Kushtrimi, was an Albanian commander and co-founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the Kosovo War and the National Liberation Army (NLA) during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, who later became a politician in Macedonia. He was killed in a shootout near Raduša with the Macedonian police on 12 May 2010.
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Five ethnic Albanian rebels have been killed in a police raid to seize illegal weapons, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski has said.
SKOPJE -- Macedonian police killed five alleged ethnic Albanian rebels in a raid on a house in Skopje on Tuesday in a new blow to hopes of a peaceful end to a five-month guerrilla rebellion. "A terrorist group was preparing an attack on Skopje and the police carried out an operation early this morning," Minister Ljube Boskovski told Reuters.
There were no police injuries reported in the incident, the first of its kind in Skopje since the current conflict erupted in February.
Police officers killed five Macedonian Albanian rebels today and seized illegal weapons in a raid that the interior minister said was intended to avert an attack on the capital, Skopje.
A total of 30 people had been arrested in the police crackdown, Boskovski said.
Commander Drin Korabi of the National Liberation Army (UCK) told dpa on 26 June that the protests "showed that Macedonians and the Macedonian government want a civil war with the Albanians." He added: "We warn them that our fighters will enter not only Skopje, but Kumanovo and other towns as well, if they continue avoiding dialogue with Albanians." His last point presumably refers to the authorities' refusal to negotiate with the UCK. Korabi said that the UCK has underground fighters in Skopje "waiting for a signal to act." He added that "we have the ability to take more territories under our control" if no political settlement is reached. PM
On Sunday, a rebel leader known as Commander Hoxha said that they would attack "the airport, oil refineries, police stations in towns and other government installations," if the government targeted rebel forces in the north or in Aracinovo, a town just a few miles southeast of Skopje taken by the insurgents on Saturday.
Describing the clash today with Albanian rebels in Cair, a suburb of Skopje, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said: The group was planning terrorist activities in Skopje. We tried to arrest them, but during the operation we encountered strong armed resistance.The police returned fire, and among those killed was a rebel commander known as Teli, Mr. Boskovski said. The deaths were confirmed by Macedonian Albanian officials.
She claimed the five men (who she of course did not know) were not Albanian terrorists. I wondered how these completely innocent men came to be in possession of a large arms cache. The raid made the front page of the Macedonian papers and in a photo of the contraband captured in the raid I counted at least six assault rifles, one scoped folding stock assault rifle, several loaded magazines, camouflage uniforms, and a large pile of ammo bandoliers for the South African Armscorp 40mm grenade launcher
The rebels were apparently responding to the killings by Macedonian troops of five alleged rebels in Skopje on Tuesday. The rebels said they were civilians.