On the third day of fighting on the Kosovo-Albanian border two civilians were killed and nine people were wounded when the border village of Tropoje was shelled by the Serbian army yesterday afternoon. According to the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe), at about 4 p.m. at least six explosions were heard and the border police station at the edge of Tropoje village received a direct hit.
One Albanian policeman and two Albanian soldiers were wounded, one seriously. He was taken to hospital in Tirana.
Two hours later, one single explosion was heard in the centre of Tropoje village, killing two civilians and injuring six others. The injured were four border policemen and two members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
The public information officer for the OSCE in Tirana, Mr Andrea Agnelli, said that although not yet confirmed, some of those involved in the later incident were travelling in a minibus.
Although the OSCE are not military observers - and are not equipped to be - they are the most reliable independent source of information in Albania and are based at strategic posts throughout the country.
However, the Inspector of Border Police, Mr Bajram Gosturami, was able to confirm the deaths last night.
An OSCE observer, Mr Leo Dobbs, an Irish citizen who is based at Bajram Currie, close to the village of Tropoje and roughly 30 km from the border, reported: "Since 9.30 yesterday morning the Serb army has been fighting with mortar and heavy artillery. They have been targeting four Albanian border posts: Padesh, Kamanica, Zherke and Zogaj."
In Padesh and Kamanica, he reported, the attacks had been heaviest. At about 4 p.m. yesterday 40 or 50 rounds were fired towards the border post and could be heard from the OSCE base in Bajram Currie, roughly 20 km away.
Mr Dobbs said that about 200 rounds of 120mm mortars had been fired in the area over the past few days.
Mr Dobbs also speculated that there could be three reasons the Serbian army has begun targeting the Albanian border posts.
One is that they are seriously trying to escalate the war and involve Albania in it. The other is that they are trying to drive the KLA from their training camps in the region. The third possibility is that they are trying to create a cordon sanitaire.
The killings on the border are the first since fighting began three days ago and will be considered significant since they have proved the possibility of effectively targeting Albanian territory from across the border.
However, Tirana yesterday asked NATO to strike Serb artillery in Yugoslavia near the border with Albania after the mortar attacks on four Albanian villages, the Albanian ATA news agency reported.
"NATO needs to intervene to neutralise the Serb artillery near the border with Albania because it has been firing in the direction of Albanian territory in the last few days," ATA quoted the Interior Minister, Mr Petro Koci, as saying.
Albania said earlier yesterday it was ready to accept the deployment of extra NATO troops on its territory, in addition to the 8,000 due to arrive shortly to support humanitarian aid agencies in coping with a flood of Kosovo Albanian refugees.
"We have now decided to give NATO the rights to control all our air space, ports and any other kind of military infrastructure in Albania," the Foreign Minister, Mr Paskal Milo, said in London via a satellite link.