Journalist reported dead in Kosovo mortar attack

A journalist is reported to have been killed in Kosovo today after a mortar attack in the village of Krivenik near the Macedonian…

A journalist is reported to have been killed in Kosovo today after a mortar attack in the village of Krivenik near the Macedonian border.

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Mortar rounds fell this morning close to Krivenik and there were at least two dead and around 20 injured.
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KFOR spokesman Mr Richard Heffer

The English television producer, from the Associated Press, was injured this morning and evacuated by helicopter to the US military base of Camp Bondsteel in southeastern Kosovo. It is believed he died at the base.

Two other people were killed and about 20 wounded in the shelling, a KFOR spokesperson in Kosovo said.

"Mortar rounds fell this morning close to Krivenik and there were at least two dead and around 20 injured," said KFOR spokesman Mr Richard Heffer.

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Krivenik is four kilometres (two miles) across the border from the Macedonian hamlet of Gracani, where Macedonian forces were fighting ethnic Albanian rebels.

Mr Heffer was unable to say who fired the mortars. He said US army medical teams had rushed to the scene to evacuate the injured.

The rebel commander in the Gracani area, who fights under the name Studenti, said the mortars came from Macedonian army positions close to the deserted village.

Macedonian forces launched a fresh push along the northern border with Kosovo yesterday to flush out remaining rebels after an army counter-offensive drove the guerrillas from the edge of the northwestern town of Tetovo at the weekend.

The rebels have vowed to keep on fighting the government, despite being condemned by the international community, which backed Macedonia's military action.

AFP