The Macedonian army deployed tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy weapons yesterday to back up special police fighting to drive Albanian rebels away from positions in the hills overlooking Tetovo.
Two convoys of armoured cars and tanks on transporters trundled up-country along the main highway north-west from the capital, Skopje, with several bus and truck loads of troops in their wake.
Upon their arrival in Tetovo, they took up positions in the Macedonian army barracks, just at the edge of the town, where a logistic contingent of German Kfor troops had been stationed before their evacuation after coming under fire last week.
The barracks was peppered with gunfire last Friday from Albanian rebels operating in the hills above Tetovo.
The military build-up was a sure sign that the government intended to step up the pressure on the rebels and flush them out of their stronghold on the hills north-west of the town.
The town and the surrounding valley echoed yesterday with the repeated rumble of tank rounds and the crackle of machine guns and rifles.
A fresh breeze blew down from the snow-capped Sara mountain at the foot of the valley as onlookers gathered on the pavement outside the Hotel Makedonija on Marshal Tito Avenue, shielding their eyes from the sun as they peered up at the palls of smoke rising from the pine-clad slopes overhead.
Two houses from which gunshots flashed were pounded by tank fire from within Tetovo, as government troops trained their sights on the guerrillas from behind the covered market.
The icy mountain peaks in the distance and the rolling scenery, punctuated by tall, elegant white houses with red pantiled roofs, gave the landscape a holiday postcard aura, made all the more eerie by the pounding backbeat of artillery.
The streets of the town, which has a peacetime population of 200,000, were near-deserted, but an occasional worried pedestrian could be spotted scurrying along his way, keeping close to walls and doorways to keep out of range of the sniper fire which has dogged the streets since last Wednesday.
Though the fighting has thrust them into the spotlight of world attention, the predominantly Albanian population of Tetovo showed a stubborn reluctance to answer questions.
Standing silent and solemn on the sidewalks, they refused to acknowledge, or feigned incomprehension at any question thrown at them, the most frequent non-reply a barely perceptible shrug of the shoulders or the flicker of a wry smile.
But they all have their views on the issues at stake. Ethnic Albanians believe the Macedonian government is reaping the rewards of its over-optimistic economic policy of the past 10 years, which has seen this small republic grow in stature and prosperity.
But, according to its Albanian population, it has all been to the detriment of the wealth of the north-west in which they more than predominate. And now they want to redress the balance.
They want equality with the Slavic Macedonian majority in everything from civil rights to education and job opportunities. The ethnic Albanians - 23 per cent of the two-million population of the republic, according to the 1994 census, or at least one-third claimed by the Albanians - say they have suffered wide-ranging discrimination.
They want official recognition of their language, full access to higher education and a stronger presence in public life, although the main Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) of Mr Arben Xhaferi, is a member of the coalition government, holding five portfolios.
The rebels are not heroes in their own land, except to a small extremist handful, but there is a general sense of acceptance in these parts that what they are fighting for is no more than the rights of an under-privileged people.