Shootout in Macedonia; Albanian Militant Cell Shut Down

After a day long standoff and gun battle that left eight police officers dead and 37 wounded, Macedonia began two days of national mourning in the wake of a successful dawn raid against an ethnic Albanian terrorist cell operating in the northern border town of Kumanovo. Reports indicate that fourteen Albanian militants were killed and around thirty captured out of a 44 man cell. Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski described the eliminated terror group as “one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the Balkans.” Many of the militants were believed to have come over into Macedonia from Kosovo. The surviving militants and their weapons cache were reportedly captured after a gun battle.

A paramilitary group known as the National Liberation Army has claimed that its militants were attacked by the Macedonian government this weekend. The National Liberation Army was founded in the late 1990s as a successor to the Al-Qaeda linked Kosovo Liberation Army, and was active during the Macedonian civil war in 2001. Once thought defunct, the group recently arose again in the past few years when militants began to open fire on police and even shell the government building in the capital of Skopje.

Macedonia has accused the National Liberation Army of attempting to sever heavily Albanian regions in Macedonia and Serbia and unify them with Kosovo in order to create a “greater Albania.” The border regions are a stronghold of Albanian organized crime and is the heart of the drug smuggling operation in Europe. Albanian organized crime has become key in the smuggling business in Europe, and Islamic State’s own magazine Dabiq has noted the importance of the Balkan smuggling rings in sneaking in weapons to western Europe.

A recent statement from Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on the raid mentioned information that indicated that members of the militant cell raided on Saturday included among their number terrorists who recently fought in Syria and Iraq, as well as veterans from the Kosovo war in 1999. Kosovo has seen the most citizens join Islamic State per capita out of all European nations. Gruevski also stated that the terrorists planned to attack sports events, shopping malls, and government buildings. However, there is widespread non-religious opposition to Prime Minister Gruevski and his government after revelations that Gruevski engaged in illegal wiretapping and the cover-up of a death of a protester at the hands of police four years ago.

If the claims are false, it wouldn’t be the first time the Macedonian government has tried to tie Albanian militants to jihadists. Back in 2002 Macedonian police murdered seven Pakistani illegal immigrants seeking passage into western Europe, claiming that the seven Pakistanis were jihadists who engaged police in a gun fight after being discovered. Two years later Macedonian officials admitted that the Pakistanis were not terrorists and were murdered in order to gain NATO support against Albanian militants.