Police shot dead two ethnic Albanians in Macedonia's battlefront town of Tetovo today and one policeman was wounded in further shooting as European powers sought to avert another Balkan war.
A government spokesman in the capital Skopje, indicating the political decision to proceed with an anti-insurgency offensive had been taken, said the army was now in charge of operations.
Macedonian guns fired on rebel-held hills overlooking Tetovo, ignoring a unilateral ceasefire declared by the guerrillas yesterday in an apparent effort to delay a threatened government assault.
A cameraman in Tetovo said Macedonian police stopped a car during the morning and opened fire when its occupants appeared to hurl an object which looked like a hand-grenade at a sandbagged position.
The two men were killed on the spot.
The village of Gracani, northwest of the capital Skopje, appeared to be in rebel hands after a substantial force entered overnight, residents in the vicinity said.
Police sealed off Gracani after one officer was wounded. The rebels said one of their number was also hit.
Later in the evening, the village close to the border with Kosovo, some 15 km (10 miles) from Skopje and east of Tetovo, was seen in flames. There was no access to the area.
A ministerial delegation from the European Union arrived in Skopje as the government bombardment resumed.
The boom of detonations could be heard at the airport 40 km (25 miles) away, but the EU still remained hopeful that the spiralling violence could be halted.
"I think that a ceasefire is always a positive thing. We were very pleased when we heard yesterday that the people from the mountains called a ceasefire", EU security chief Javier Solana told a news conference.