Macedonia fighting escalates Signing of accord still on for Monday despite clashes

SKOPJE, Macedonia--Macedonian army helicopter gunships rushedSaturday to try to rescue a police unit encircled by ethnic Albanianrebels in the mountains, state television reported.

The escalation in fighting--which threatened to further erodeconfidence in a tentative peace agreement for this troubled Balkannation--came as Macedonians buried seven soldiers and declared a dayof mourning following a spate of deadly rebel attacks.

The rebel fighters reportedly surrounded an unspecified number ofpolicemen in the village of Radusa, near the border with Kosovo.Helicopter gunships could be seen taking off from the capital,Skopje, just 10 miles away, and state television showed Sukhoi SU-25ground attack jets flying over the village.

The rebels were supported by reinforcements from Kosovo, themostly ethnic Albanian-populated, NATO-controlled province ofneighboring Yugoslavia, state television said. The claim could not beindependently confirmed.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that the army and policewere jointly and "successfully pushing back terrorists" with "allavailable means."

The army lobbed artillery fire into rebel-held villages near thecountry's second-largest city, Tetovo, on Saturday, in attacks therebels said hit homes and other civilian property. The governmentsaid the rebels attacked first.

Crowds of mourners, Orthodox priests and soldiers gathered for thesoldiers' funerals at several cemeteries in Skopje. Officersdelivered emotional speeches, praising the slain men as heroes whodied defending their fatherland.

At one of the funerals, the body of army reservist MarjancoBoskovski, 28, lay in an open coffin, his face scarred from the blastthat shattered his truck, part of a military convoy that hit a landmine just north of the capital Friday.

Macedonia's ethnic Albanian militants took up arms in Februarysaying they want more rights for their community, which accounts fora third of the country's population of 2 million. The Macedonians saythe rebels simply want to seize a chunk of territory and call ittheir own.

On Wednesday, ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders agreed, underWestern pressure, to a peace settlement that should be signed Mondaydespite continuing violence.

Macedonians angry at the slayings rioted in Skopje late Friday,looting and ransacking ethnic Albanian-owned businesses. A mob surgedtoward the U.S. Embassy to protest what many Macedonians perceive asWestern bias in favor of ethnic Albanians. The crowd was turned back.

The U.S. State Department issued a warning the same day, advisingU.S. citizens to defer travel to Macedonia.