Macedonia army pounds rebel strongholds

Macedonian Government forces pounded rebel strongholds with artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships today despite the resumption of talks between ethnic Albanian and Slav politicians aimed at ending the violence.

Troops began firing before dawn at rebels entrenched on the slopes between the towns of Aracinovo and Nikustak, a few miles outside Skopje, the capital.

Two helicopter gunships also fired missiles.

Artillery shells set a four storey house on fire, blanketing the eastern part of the village with heavy smoke.

Sporadic machine gun fire and grenade explosions could be heard coming from rebel held areas.

Macedonian army Colonel Blagoja Markovski said the sustained action was aimed at ‘‘crushing and destroying terrorists’’.

Government forces were also reportedly firing for a second straight day on rebel strongholds near the northwestern city of Tetovo and near Kumanovo, close to the northern border with Kosovo.

More than 1,000 villagers crossed into neighbouring Kosovo on Thursday from those areas, pushing the total of refugees this year to nearly 50,000, said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Kosovo.

A rebel leader known as Commander Hohxa said by telephone from Aracinovo that three civilians were killed and ‘‘many’’ wounded, including one rebel fighter, in Friday’s attack.

He accused the Macedonian army of breaking the week-old truce and added: ‘‘I’m warning the government if they want war they’re going to get one. We will defend ourselves.’’

Rebels have seized several villages in northern Macedonia in what they say is a fight for greater civil rights for the country’s minority ethnic Albanians.

The Government accuses them of wanting to carve up the country and has launched several offensives to try to dislodge them.

Negotiations for a political solution resumed late on Thursday, a day after Nato offered to send troops to supervise disarming rebels once a deal is reached.

European Union security chief Javier Solana, a former NATO secretary-general who has taken a lead role in efforts to head off another Balkan civil war, made an unscheduled stop in Skopje to try to overcome an impasse on a plan put forward by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.

‘‘I think we will be able to solve the problem,’’ Solana said after meeting both sides.

Macedonian officials, who had broken off six days of talks on Wednesday, kept talking after Solana took off for Israel.

‘‘We are talking and we will be able to make an agreement,’’’’ said Imer Imeri, a key ethnic Albanian leader.

A source in Trajkovski’s office said the president invited ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders to return to the bargaining table today, but it was unclear whether the offer would be accepted under the circumstances.

Solana was to return to Macedonia tonight.