A ceasefire between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels was on the rocks yesterday just hours after it was announced, as police accused the guerrillas of an ambush that left six police officers wounded.
The attack near the flashpoint north-west town of Tetovo came just seven hours after the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) responded to a halt in army shelling in the north with its own 24-hour ceasefire, valid until noon today.
Macedonian national television said six police officers were wounded in the attack, but their lives were not in danger. The NLA had promised not to fire unless it was attacked first.
Police in Tetovo said the rebels had ambushed officers shipping supplies up to a position on the border with the UN-run Yugoslav province of Kosovo. The convoy was also taking supplies for civilians caught under fire for more than a month and evacuated 46 of them, a Macedonian official said. The Macedonian government had announced earlier it was halting its shelling of rebel villages north of Skopje to allow a humanitarian mission into the area.
Around 10,000 civilians are pinned down by army artillery.
The national security adviser, Mr Nikola Dimitrov, denied the ceasefire was in response to a rebel threat to bombard the capital from a suburb the guerrillas seized last week.
The NLA, which says its is fighting for Albanian rights but whose armed campaign had led to thousands of refugees leaving their homes, responded by declaring its own truce.