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???????????? AP via Yahoo 'reports' below. Didn't say where the KLA gets the $$$ to run it's own "press service." |
June 6 7:54 PM ET
Kosovo Refugees Flee FightingBy DENIS D. GRAY Associated Press Writer KUKES, Albania (AP) - American B-52 bombers pounded Serb positions Sunday near the Albanian-Yugoslav border as refugees and Albanian residents fleeing shelling by Yugoslav forces were taken to this already refugee-swollen town. The heavy bombers struck near the key border crossing point of Morini, sending towering clouds of black smoke into the sky from a hillside. The bombers, which could be seen circling, also left another explosion that rose harmlessly from the White Drini River Dam at the border, 12 miles from Kukes. The strikes were directed against Serb forces fighting guerrillas of the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army. Despite the bombing, Serb artillery continued to hammer at the guerrillas, who responded with mortar fire. Yugoslavia's acceptance of the international peace plan for Kosovo has not brought an end to fighting in the border areas, where the rebels are trying to move fighters and supplies deeper into the province to continue their fight for independence. Albanian military trucks carried several hundred people from the northern border town of Kruma, fearing more shelling and a spillover of fighting. Kruma was quiet Sunday, but plumes of smoke were seen rising above the hills straddling the border. Families in Kruma also drove the nine miles south to Kukes in their own tractors, as the army trucks picked up refugees and residents in the town and along country roads. More than 100,000 refugees from Kosovo have already sought shelter in camps or with residents in Kukes, whose 23,000 citizens are facing water shortages and other problems because of the influx. In Tirana, the capital, Andrea Angeli of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said 10 shells exploded late Saturday in Kruma, which was jammed with about 19,000 refugees who had fled Kosovo as well as Albanian villagers who fled their homes because of Serb shelling. There were no reports of casualties in Kruma, but Angeli said three shells hit the nearby village of Nikoliq, injuring three young women. Angeli said Serb-led Yugoslav forces shelled several Albanian border villages late Friday, injuring two people in Perollaj and mortally wounding an 18-year-old woman in the village of Golaj. The KLA's press service, Kosova Press, also reported Serb attacks around the town of Malisevo, a former rebel stronghold 21 miles southwest of the provincial capital, Pristina. Kosova Press said Yugoslav forces attacked villages around Malisevo with tanks and mortars. Kosova Press also reported Yugoslav forces fired nine rockets at refugees hiding in a gorge in the Berisha mountains of southern Kosovo, injuring 15 civilians. The reports could not be confirmed because no international monitors are in the province and journalists are restricted in their movements. Continued fighting underscores the difficulties that international peacekeepers will face in trying to restore order in the turbulent province after Yugoslav troops, police and paramilitary forces withdraw as demanded by NATO. The NATO-backed peace plan agreed to by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday calls for the KLA to disarm. But rebel leaders have said they will not lay down their arms until all Serb-led forces have left Kosovo and an international peacekeeping force is in place. In a statement Friday, the Albanian government said Belgrade's acceptance of the peace plan ``does not mean that the resolution of the (Kosovo) problem has begun.'' The statement noted continued shelling along the border. ``Immediately after voting upon this plan by the Serb parliament, Serb artillery intensified its bombing of Albanian villages on the border between Kosovo and Albania,'' the statement said. The Albanian government said only the speedy entry of NATO troops into Kosovo ``can guarantee security in the region.'' Meanwhile, Serb state-run television in Belgrade reported Sunday that the Yugoslav army has killed more than 500 ethnic Albanian rebels over the past few days who were trying to cross the Yugoslav-Albanian border. The report could not be confirmed. |