Albanian group claims responsibility for attack on police

Albanian group claims responsibility for attack on police

SKOPJE -- A group calling itself the National Liberation Army (Albanian: UCK) has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's incident in the Macedonian village of Gosnice.

This is according to the Albanian language media in Pristina, who said a statement to that effect was signed by "commander Flamuri," calling for "mobilization against repression and discrimination of Albanians."

The now disbanded so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has the same acronym (UCK) in Albanian.

The Macedonian police on Tuesday said that "40 armed persons, most likely coming from Kosovo," seized a police outpost.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has called a meeting of top state official who will consider the security situation in the country.

The Macedonian police are now back in control of the Gosnice outpost, it has been confirmed. Police spokesman Ivan Kotevski said that "a group from Gnjilane (in Kosovo)" led by a Xhevahir Ademi, was likely responsible for the incident.

Macedonia's Alfa TV reported that the identity of five out of the 40 attackers has been confirmed, and that they were led by Ademi.

According to this source, they are all "well known to security services in the region."

Radio Free Europe interviewed a former National Liberation Army member who lives in the area, who said there were "no armed persons there."

Abedin Zimberi further asserted that the incident "seemed to be a government's scenario to deflect citizens' attention from what is happening in Macedonia."

Pristina-based Indeksonline website also claims that Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski "invented the attack that came from Kosovo" in order to...