Krivenik, Yugoslavia — Heavy mortar fire from the direction of Macedonia rained on this ethnic Albanian village in NATO-occupied Kosovo province Thursday, killing two residents and a British journalist and causing American peacekeeping troops to run for cover.
The attack, which also wounded 16 residents, occurred as Macedonian government forces across the border pressed an offensive against Albanian guerrillas, many of whom have fled north across remote mountain passes into Kosovo. According to residents, about 20 of the rebels had passed near the village the previous night.
During the shelling, at least 16 Americans were present in the village and two U.S. Army helicopters were hovering overhead, according to residents.
The Macedonian army has been under pressure from Western governments to avoid civilian casualties. Thursday's incident was the first time that crossborder fire caused casualties, and at least the second time that American soldiers in Kosovo have been exposed to deadly force during the month-long conflict between the guerrillas and Macedonian forces.
The Macedonian government Thursday night denied that its troops were responsible for the attack, but promised to investigate further. A senior NATO official, while cautioning that the alliance has not yet completed its own investigation, said there was little doubt that the Macedonian government was responsible. "It's indiscriminate fire," the official said. "We hope this will force them to really back off. For weeks we've been telling them (privately) you can't resolve this through violence."
American soldiers and U.N. police in Kosovo, showing signs of embarrassment that the violence had occurred in Kosovo, attempted unsuccessfully to seal off the scene of an attack that could inflame Albanian anger.
Three of the wounded residents described a sudden attack that left at least five craters in the heart of the village and many more in surrounding fields and forests. Shells barely missed a school where roughly 60 children were attending class.
But one of the shells landed directly on the roof of a black jeep that had just parked outside the school, mortally wounding its driver, Kerem Lawton, a British journalist employed by Associated Press Television News. He had just got out of the car and was talking with Menduh Thaqi, 34, who took shrapnel in his throat, back and arms.
"Everyone was terrified," Thaqi said from a hospital bed in the southern Kosovo town of Ferrizaj. "The noise was terrible. There were big explosions."
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