Vaksince - Macedonian forces seized two northern villages held by ethnic Albanian rebels yesterday in an almost bloodless operation, as thousands of civilians poured out of the area, government officials said.
"Police have entered the villages and there is nobody there. Everyone has gone, the civilians and the rebels," an interior ministry spokesman, Mr Stevo Pendarovski, said. Thousands of civilian refugees left Vaksince and Lojane during a government offensive yesterday in which tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships were used against suspected guerrilla positions.