Kumanovo, Macedonia--NATO and the EU called for a return to calm in Macedonia Sunday after clashes between police and an armed group left at least 22 people dead, raising concerns about presumed ethnic-Albanian unrest in the Balkan region.
"I urge everyone to exercise restraint and avoid any further escalation, in the interest of the country and the whole region," NATO Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Police said late Sunday that their operation against the gunmen in the northern town of Kumanovo was over.
"The armed group is neutralised," police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told AFP. The troubled area in Kumanovo, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Skopje, was "under police control," he added.
Eight police officers were killed and 37 were injured in the gun battles, which began at dawn Saturday, and 14 bodies were also found at the site, the spokesman said earlier.
The assailants were from "a particularly dangerous terrorist group" whose members included people sought on international arrest warrants, Kotevski said.
The group was made up of over 30 people, mostly Macedonian citizens and five presumed ethnic-Albanians from Kosovo, supposedly the group leaders, and one from Albania, he said.
According to the interior ministry some 20 gunmen who surrendered Saturday were to be brought to a Skopje court as an investigation opened into the deadly unrest.
AFP
