Macedonia's prime minister said the army was using heavy artillery and tanks today to battle ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the north of the country along the border with Kosovo.
"Today, in the area between Tanusevci and the triangle at the border between Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia - and not only today - we are acting with tanks, heavy artillery and mortars and all equipment which can reach that area," MrLjubco Georgievski said.
His words came as a surprise because the Macedonian police entered Tanusevci some 10 days ago after the guerrillas left it.
Most of the border in the area is supposed to have been sealed by the Macedonian army on one side and KFOR peacekeepers on the Kosovo side, and there had been no recent reports of violence in the north of Macedonia. KFOR in Pristina said they knew nothing about a battle in the area.
Clashes between Macedonian security forces and the guerrillas have been raging since Wednesday in the hills near the town of Tetovo in the northwest of the Balkan state.
Earlier, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo told ethnic Albanian guerrillas today it would respond with force against any threat to its logistics base in neighbouring Macedonia.
KFOR's commander, Lieutenant General Carlo Cabigiosu, said in his strongest statement so far that his troops were taking robust measures to seal the border between Kosovo and Macedonia in close coordination with the Skopje government.
"The Albanian extremist groups need to understand that their actions may harm the stabilisation of the whole area and that this is not in the interests of the ethnic Albanian communities," he said in a statement.