Macedonian police killed seven gunmen in a shootout today and said they were foreigners, probably Pakistanis, who were suspected of planning attacks on embassies in the volatile Balkan country.
The men tried to ambush a police patrol near Butel, a suburb of Skopje, Interior Minister Mr Ljube Boskovski said. He said they opened fire with machine guns when police told them to identify themselves, and police fired back, killing all seven. Officials said no police were hurt.
Mr Boskovski initially said the dead included ethnic Albanian insurgents and foreigners. But he later said all were foreigners, and a senior police official speaking on condition of anonymity said separately that "all indications" pointed to their being Pakistanis.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the nationalities of those killed. Pakistan does not have an embassy in Macedonia, a former republic of Yugoslavia.
Mr Boskovski said the group had been planning to attack "vital installations and some foreign embassies in Skopje." He did not say when, which embassies or give any other details.
Police officials said they found seven AK-47 assault rifles, several hand grenades and ammunition in or near the van the men used.
A police statement also said security forces found uniforms with shoulder patches of the National Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian rebel group that fought Macedonian government forces in an insurgency last year but is now disbanded.
Another senior police official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said interrogations of two Jordanians and two Bosnians several weeks ago revealed links between the four foreigners and a larger group suspected of planning to kill government officials and attack the US, British and German embassies in the Macedonian capital. Security has been increased, he said.
Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity said heightened security measures were in effect at some of their embassies. No one was available for comment today at the US Embassy, where more than a dozen police officers were seen posted around the compound after the clash a larger number than usual.
Ethnic Albanian rebels launched an insurgency in Macedonia in February 2000, demanding more rights for ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim and make up nearly one-third of the nation's population of 2 million. Macedonians are mostly Christian.
Fighting between the rebels and Macedonian government forces killed dozens and drove thousands from their homes before a Western-brokered peace deal was signed in August.
Rebels abandoned their fight and surrendered thousands of weapons to NATO troops in exchange for reforms granting ethnic Albanians more rights, but the pace of the changes has been slow and ethnic tension lingers.
AP