[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=AB?=ALBEUROPA=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BB?=} Two Serb Police Killed Near Kosovo

[Nikoll A Mirakaj]

Two Serb Police Killed Near Kosovo 

BELGRADE, Oct 14, 2000 -- (Reuters) Two Serbian police officers were killed and nine were wounded when their vehicles drove over a landmine on a road close to the boundary with Kosovo, the Serbian Interior Ministry said.

Four of the wounded officers were transferred to a military hospital in Belgrade while the others were treated locally, said a ministry statement carried by Serbia's Beta news agency.

The boundary area has been the scene of several small-scale clashes this year between Serbian police and ethnic Albanian rebels.

Serbian officials say the guerrillas are trying to provoke a military conflict similar to the one in Kosovo last year but the rebels say they are defending people against police brutality.

The ministry statement said the mine had been planted by "members of Albanian terrorist gangs from Kosovo and Metohija", using the traditional Serbian name for the province.

It said the incident had taken place between the villages of Veliki Trnovac and Mali Trnovac, a few kilometers east of the boundary, shortly before midday.

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited

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