American-led peacekeepers have eliminated a "safe haven" in Kosovo used by armed extremists to attack neighbouring Macedonia, a spokesman said yesterday.
"Last night and today early in the morning our forces, Kfor - US, Polish and Ukrainian - moved in to clear the final buildings in the town of Mijak," Mr Jim Marshall said in the Kosovo village of Debelde near the border.
"This is the area we believe that these armed extremists were using as a headquarters and a safe haven. This morning we found the buildings, the trenches and their observation post unoccupied," he added.
Kosovo had been eliminated as a safe haven for extremist groups, he said.
The NATO-led Kfor peacekeepers moved into Mijak on Wednesday, injuring two gunmen they said threatened them. Mr Marshall said a total of seven men had been arrested.
Kfor describes Mijak as an extension of the Macedonian village of Tanusevci where there have been skirmishes between gunmen and Macedonian security forces for almost two weeks.
Macedonia, the only former Yugoslav republic to have split away from the federation without conflict, has called for help in dealing with the shadowy armed group, which it says threatens relations between its Slav majority and large ethnic Albanian minority.
While Kfor reinforced patrols on the Kosovo side of the border, it said it did not have the mandate to operate in Macedonia.
Two Apache attack helicopters patrolled the area over Mijak In Vitina and Ukrainian special police set up checkpoints.
International officials in Kosovo initially denied the guerrillas had support from the province, put under international control after NATO bombing forced a withdrawal of Serb forces in 1999.
Officials said a Macedonian policeman was killed in a grenade attack on a convoy near the Kosovo border later yesterday.