***** Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Limited Sunday Times (London) March 3, 2002, Sunday SECTION: Overseas news LENGTH: 430 words HEADLINE: Terrorist team had British targets BYLINE: Tom Walker, Macedonia
BODY: SEVEN suspected Islamic terrorists who were shot dead yesterday in a gun battle in the Macedonian capital of Skopje appear to have been planning attacks on the British embassy and other foreign targets, the Macedonian government said.
Officials said the men who died were thought to have been Pakistanis who had previously been with the 113th brigade of the National Liberation Army, which fought on the side of the Muslim Albanian minority against the majority Slavs in a brief civil war in Macedonia last year.
The men were travelling in a van when they were challenged by police, failed to stop and fired at officers. They were killed in exchanges with special police units. Officials claimed the men had been preparing an ambush on a police checkpoint. Local journalists said at least 15 heavily armed policemen were later posted outside the American embassy. Security has also been beefed up by the British.
The Macedonian interior ministry said it suspected that the dead men had links with four others arrested two weeks ago outside the German embassy. Two were Jordanians and two Bosnians who had been educated in Jordan. Police recovered documents and a disk containing plans for attacks around Skopje.
"They planned attacks on important buildings, foreign diplomats most probably from the US, Germany and the UK - those that were involved in the fight against global terrorism," said Ljube Boskovski, the Macedonian interior minister and one of the government's hardliners.
Zoran Tanevski, a spokesman for the government's "crisis resolution" co-ordinating body, set up after a peace deal was struck with the Albanian minority in August, said the authorities had stopped some groups that had been "preparing for terrorist attacks". He said: "These are probably remnants from the war, and there could be more out there."
The influence of Islamic extremists in the Balkan wars has always been disputed, and the Bosnian government has criticised foreign intelligence reports linking it with mujaheddin movements. But several such units fought for the Bosnian army and many soldiers married local women and remained after the war ended in 1995.
Many Al-Qaeda fighters, including Osama Bin Laden, were said to have had Bosnian passports, though exact records have never been established, partly because of the chaos of the Balkan wars, but also because of reluctance by the Bosnian government.
Bin Laden is also said by some intelligence agencies, particularly the Yugoslav state security service, to have visited Albania in 1997. ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>