Three European Union monitors were found dead in Macedonia today after a mine blew their vehicle into a ravine while they were observing a fragile ceasefire.
"There is no longer any reasonable doubt as to whether they're dead", a spokesman for the EU mission said from its Balkan headquarters in Sarajevo.
NATO troops were helping in an operation to recover their vehicle from the bottom of a ravine in rough terrain, he added.
The Norwegian and Slovakian monitors, who were with a translator from Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, went missing yesterday while on a routine monitoring mission in the hills near the predominantly Albanian town of Tetovo.
"Their Land Rover hit a mine", Tetovo police chief Mr Shaip Bilalli said.
The vehicle was last seen heading out of Macedonian government-controlled territory towards a mountainous area that is in the hands of ethnic Albanian guerrillas who have staged a five-month-long revolt in the small Balkan state.
A blast was heard around 3.30 p.m (1.30 p.m. Irish time) yesterday from the direction in which the team had travelled.
A rebel commander in the region said he believed the EU team were victims of a simple road accident.
"We heard the blast, but we don't have detailed information", he said, denying that the EU staffers had reached territory under his control.
The EU monitors, who wear distinctive white uniforms, are trying to restore calm in the ethnically divided country. There are around 115 of them in the Balkans, with fewer than 30 in Macedonia.