Macedonian shellfire landed across the border into Albanian-dominated Kosovo, injuring civilians, according to witnesses.
Reuters
reporters said they heard two sets of three explosions coming from the village of Krivenik, which lies behind a border ridge and is around one kilometre from the frontier. They saw several cars race by soon afterwards carrying injured people.
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Houses burning in the hills above Tetovo
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Macedonian forces were following the bombing of mountains overlooking the town of Tetovo in an effort to flush out rebels from their hideouts and end the month-long ethnic Albanian minority uprising.
Army and police units launched heavy assaults on the last of the rebels yesterday, pounding their positions with tank and mortar fire. They said they expected to defeat the insurgents very soon.
The attack came three days after a major push against the guerrillas above Tetovo, the town in northwestern Macedonia regarded as the unofficial capital of the country's ethnic Albanian minority.
The aim is to clear the last active pockets of rebel resistance from the former Yugoslav republic.
After a day of heavy firing, the government said its forces had advanced close to the border with Kosovo and had driven rebels from the few mountain hamlets they still controlled.
One officer died when his jeep hit a rebel mine. He was the seventh security force death in a month of violence. Rebel casualties are unknown.