KOSOVO: SERB FORCES ATTEMPT TO REGAIN CONTROL OF ORAHOVAC

Описание: (21 Jul 1998) Serbo-Croat/Nat

Serb forces fighting in Kosovo have attempted to regain control of Orahovac from ethnic Albanian rebels.

Official Serb media claim the town is under government control, after fierce fighting over the weekend.

But they concede that the town is not yet totally clear of Kosovo Liberation Army (K-L-A) rebel troops, and sniper fire continues in the city centre.

By Monday afternoon, Serb forces claimed to have taken the southern suburbs of Orahovac.

In the distance, smoke billowed from fires in the centre of town, K-L-A snipers in the hills to the north of the town continuing to fire on the government troops.

Serb police said as many as 600 K-L-A rebels had tried to seize the town, capturing and shutting down a power plant before moving on to the post office.

Serb police allegedly forced the rebels to flee by car or by foot, leaving their weapons behind.

After a weekend battle for control of this strategic town, Serb forces showed off seized weapons and openly displayed other evidence of their victory over the independence-seeking K-L-A in a specially arranged media trip.

First stop on the Monday afternoon tour for visiting reporters: a police station where tables covered with assault rifles, machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades were displayed. These weapons were all, allegedly, captured from fleeing rebel troops.

Second stop: A 200-yard-long trench on the road to Orahovac where K-L-A gunmen apparently had left behind bread and empty soda bottles.

Third: A gas station crowded with dozens of refugees from the fighting, one with a nasty leg wound.

The refugees are Ethnic Albanians, taken by the Serbs and temporally detained until, the Serbs claim, the area has been cleared of K-L-A troops.

The Serbian forces are concerned that some of the men are K-L-A soldiers.

The refugees had been hiding from the fighting.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"They (the police) saved us from the basement. We didn't eat for three days. We only drank water. I don't know anything. I was in a basement for three days."
SUPERCAPTION: Injured Albanian Man from Orahovac

The fighting casts more doubt on the possibility of a negotiated settlement between Serbia, which dominates what remains of Yugoslavia, and the separatist Albanians who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.

The capture of Orahovac would have expanded the nearly 40 percent of Kosovo that the K-L-A is said to control, and given the rebels command of a strategic road.

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