Blace bunker raid | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Special Police Unit "Tigar" [1] | ![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
![]() | ![]() | ||||||
3 suspects arrested by the Kosovo Police |
The Macedonian police initiated an operation to seize guarded weapons caches and bunkers held by members of the National Liberation Army in late April 2010 near the village of Blace on the Kosovo border. The raid was conducted by members of the Macedonian Special Police Unit "Tigar".
Armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Macedonian security forces had previously occurred during the larger 2001 insurgency in Macedonia and during Operation Mountain Storm in the Tetovo region in 2007.
The raid occurred on 29 April 2010 and lasted the following day with Macedonian security forces engaging in brief skirmishes with members of the NLA who were guarding bunkers and weapons caches on the Macedonian-Kosovo border. The Macedonian police forces successfully engaged the rebels who fled to Kosovo after a short fire exchange. The Macedonian police forces continued to "comb" the region and discovered a large quantity of weapons including 20 missiles, three mortars, three field guns, TNT explosives, hand grenades and anti-tank mines, also uncovered were emblems of uniforms of the former NLA. The Macedonian government claimed that the group was planning large military operations to destabilize Macedonia and the wider Balkan region. [1] [3]
A group claiming to be the National Liberation Army (NLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, although former leader of the NLA and member of the Macedonian government Ali Ahmeti denied that the NLA was responsible for the weapons caches and the firefight with the police, he condemned the use of violence by the group. Kosovo Police arrested three people it suspected of being involved in the shootout with the police. [4]
NATO expressed concern and the large quantity of weapons found in the caches. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, Commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command in Naples on his visit to Kosovo considered the incident worrying and one that could potentially destabilise a country like Macedonia. [2]
Two weeks after the bunker raid the Macedonian police engaged in a shootout with veterans of the NLA who were smuggling weapons near the Kosovo border. The Macedonian media suspected the two incidents were related but the Macedonian government refused to speculate on the issue. [5] According to Macedonian Alpha TV the perpetrators of the 2015 Kumanovo clashes and the attack on the border post in Gošince were men who were previously involved with the incidents with the weapons cashes. [6]
The National Liberation Army, also known as the Macedonian UÇK was an ethnic Albanian militant and separatist 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.
Ali Ahmeti, also known by the nom de guerre as Abaz Gjuka is a Macedonian politician of Albanian descent, leader of the Democratic Union for Integration, and a junior coalition partner in the Macedonian government since 2008. Ahmeti is also known as the political leader of the former Albanian National Liberation Army in the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia.
The 2001 insurgency in 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 beginning of February 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 Macedonia. The Socialist Republic of Macedonia had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Insurgency in the Preševo Valley was an approximately two year-long armed conflict between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanian separatists of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB). There were instances during the conflict in which the Yugoslav government requested KFOR support in suppressing UÇPMB attacks since they could only use lightly armed military forces as part of the Kumanovo Treaty that ended the Kosovo War, which created a buffer zone between FR Yugoslavia and Kosovo.
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.
Fadil Nimani was a Kosovar Albanian insurgent commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the Kosovo War (1998–99), and of the National Liberation Army (NLA) during the Macedonian Conflict (2001), in which the Albanian population sought independence of Albanian-inhabited areas in FR Yugoslavia and Republic of North Macedonia, respectively. He was appointed commander of the 114th Brigade of the NLA, active in the Kumanovo region, and had about 150 people under his command. He was killed by Macedonian special forces in an operation during the Macedonian Conflict, on 25 May 2001. A statue has been erected by ethnic Albanian politicians and former NLA fighters at Vaksince in his honour.
On the night of 28 October 2014 at around 22:00, the Macedonian government building was attacked with two projectiles, damaging the walls and roof of the building. No casualties were reported. Speculations have occurred that the event was linked to the then recent proclamation of the so-called Republic of Ilirida. The government building was also attacked by RPG rounds in 2007. A movement calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA), a militant organization that fought against the Macedonian government during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, claimed responsibly for the attack. In a press release published by Alsat, and signed by Commander Kushtrim, the organization claimed that the Hasan Prishtina elite force hit the government building in a coordinated action. The organization claims it is "discontented" with the 2001 Ohrid Agreement peace plan.
Operation Mountain Storm was a military operation 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 with ties to Albanian paramilitary of the conflicts in Kosovo (1998–1999), Preševo Valley (2000–2001) and Macedonia (2001). The operation was carried out to remove and destroy the Albanian terrorist-extremist criminal groups that came from Kosovo, which threatened to disturb the peace and stability in the Republic of Macedonia.
The Vejce ambush or Vejce massacre was carried out by the National Liberation Army against a Special Operations Regiment convoy near the village of Vejce. During the attack, eight soldiers were killed, marking the highest death toll for government forces in a single incident during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia.
On 21 April 2015, 40 armed men with National Liberation Army (NLA) patches attacked a border police station located at Gošince, near the Kosovo border. The group tied and beat the policemen manning the outpost and stole weapons and radios. They stayed for a couple of hours, filming the event, and issued a message through an interpreter before leaving.
The Kondovo Crisis took place in the village of Kondovo, Republic of Macedonia, when an armed group of young ethnic Albanians, allegedly former National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrilla members, seal off the village of Kondovo, Republic of Macedonia, a suburb of the capital Skopje, citing poor conditions and repression by state authorities. The fledgling multi-ethnic governing coalition played down the incident stating it was a local problem stemming from the slow implementation of the peace agreement after the 2001 civil war, while some opposition parties called for "strong action".
The 2015 Kumanovo clashes, also known as Operation Divo naselje, were a series shootouts which erupted during a raid between the Macedonian police and an armed group identifying itself as the National Liberation Army (NLA). They began on 9 May 2015 in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo. During the shootings, eight Macedonian policemen and 14 of the militants were killed, while 37 officers were wounded and hospitalized. The shooting ended on 10 May 2015, in an operation by the Macedonian police and armed forces, in which 30 militants were arrested and charged with terrorism-related charges by the Macedonian authorities.
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 up until that point. 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.
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 Raduša shootout was a shootout between the Macedonian police forces and 4 veterans of the NLA near the village of Raduša close to the Kosovo border, who were smuggling weapons. The Macedonian police recovered a large quantity of weapons and NLA uniforms in their vehicle.
The Brest attack was an attack by Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA), near the village of Brest on 10 March 2001 during the insurgency in Macedonia. Albanian rebels 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 continue to shell Matejče until 11 June, 2001.
Combatants
Unofficially local media reported that several armed and uniformed men who were guarding the weapons on Thursday opened fire on the special police forces after which they fled to Kosovo. Local A1 TV reported at least one armed man was wounded by police. The arsenal of arms found yesterday reportedly contained many weapons, including machine guns, manual missile launchers, anti-tank mines, explosives, and detonators. Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said the police unit "Tigers" launched the operation on early Thursday following intelligence reports on stored weapons several kilometers northeast of Blace village near the Blace border crossing.
"The quantity of seized ammunitions was very large and this is very worrying for us," Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, Commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, said during his visit to Kosovo, AFP reported. "Such actions could destabilise a country like Macedonia, so we have to be concerned," he told media. Macedonian police last Thursday siezed a weapons stash hidden in the mountainous terrain near the village of Blace in the very sensitive border area with Kosovo. The stash included 20 missiles, three mortars, three field guns, 81 kg of plastic explosives, and hundreds of grenades and mines.
Earlier this month, a former ethnic Albanian rebel group, the National Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for another shootout in the border area, which it said killed a Macedonian soldier. The Macedonian government had said nobody had been hurt in that shooting.
The Macedonian police today found another bunker with weapons and ammunition near Blace. The Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasizes that the police continue to "comb" the area. According to the Minister of the Interior, Gordana Jankulovska, the seized weapons belonged to an extremist group that planned operations not only in Macedonia, but also in the wider region. Jankulovska, however, assessed that there is no need for citizens to worry about their safety.
"At this phase I would not link the two incidents," Macedonian Minister of Police Gordana Jankulovska told media today, referring to the recent discovery of weapons caches in the same area of Macedonia. "The police are working on the case and are still on the ground," she said, adding that violence will not be tolerated and that the police have the situation under control. So far it is not clear whether this incident is linked with that in late April when the police in the same border region with Kosovo found a large weapons stash and clashed with the uniformed gunmen who were guarding it.
Дел од екстремистите кои дејствуваа во Куманово и Гошинце во април и мај годинава, оставиле траги зад себе уште пред 5 години во упориште на Скопска Црна Гора, откриле вештаците на МВР, велат извори од истрагата за Алфа. Some of the extremists who operated in Kumanovo and Goshince in April and May of this year, left traces behind 5 years ago in a stronghold of Skopje Montenegro, the experts of the Ministry of the Interior discovered, sources from the Alfa investigation say.