Six policeman killed in Macedonia after clashes with ‘armed group’

Sporadic gunfire could be heard in an ethnic Albanian suburb of northern Macedonia on Sunday, after a day-long gun battle between police and an 'armed group’ killed six policemen and wounded about 30. The Interior Ministry said a sixth policeman had died overnight in hospital. It said an unspecified number of gunmen were killed but gave no information on civilian casualties during the clashes that began in the town of Kumanovo, 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital Skopje, early on Saturday.

Heroes who gave their lives today for the Republic of Macedonia.

Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska described the officers killed

The government proclaimed two days of national mourning. A police source said police were “still trying to break the remaining elements of the terrorist group”. Police said on Saturday they had acted on information about an “armed group” and launched an operation in an ethnic Albanian district of Kumanovo, in a region that saw heavy fighting during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001. An Interior Ministry spokesman said on Saturday the group in Kumanovo was planning “terrorist acts” and had “infiltrated” the country from a neighbouring state, without saying which. Macedonia’s neighbours are Albania, Greece, Kosovo, Serbia and Bulgaria. Macedonia has previously identified armed men in the country as coming from Kosovo.

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