Serb Offensive Operations to Extend to Northern Kosova?

A large-scale campaign of arrests of Albanian 'terrorists' will ensue in the coming days in Peja, Mitrovica, and, most immediately in Prishtina and Podujeva, senior Serb official said

PRISHTINA, Aug 15 (KIC) - A senior official with the Serbian Ministry of the Interior told the Serbian Blic day a massive-scale campaign of arrests of Albanians will be carried in the coming days.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Serb security officer said "a massive-scale campaign of arrests of terrorists who have sheltered in Prishtina, Peja ('Pec'), Mitrovica and Podujeva" will be in place in the coming days, Blic reported today.

These are the towns that have been outside the area of direct armed conflicts in Kosova in the past six months.

"Amongst some 15,000 'displaced' Albanians in Podujeva, police has learned there are dozens of terrorists from the area of Malisheva and Drenica", the unnamed Serb officer quoted by Blic said.

The truth is there are no displaced Albanians who have found refuge in Podujeva. This northeastern municipality along the border with Serbia has remained intact from Serb military and police operations of the kind seen in western and central Kosova in the past several months.

The chain of members of the UÇK in Prishtina has already been cut, the Serb officer said, adding that "police patrols will in the next couple of days be visiting Hajvali, as well as the Vranjevac (Kodra e Trimave) and Suncani Breg (Bregu i Diellit) neighbourhoods" in Prishtina, Blic reported.

Whether the Milosevic regime is thus announcing its extension of armed crackdown and ethnic cleansing campaign to these parts of Kosova, including the capital Prishtina, or else engaging in a special warfare to make the Albanian population flee before this has happened, can only be a matter of conjecture for now.

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Serb Offensive Dies Down in Deçan Area Around Midday

Meanwhile, a local human rights activist in Deçan said the Serb shelling was still going on at 14:OO hrs today

PRISHTINA, Aug 15 (KIC) - The LDK chapter in Deçan reported at 12:30 hrs the Serb attacks against the villages along the Deçan-Peja roawday, which started at 6 o'clock in the morning today (Saturday), had died down around midday. There was a cessation of the shelling, Osman Cacaj, a senior LDK official in Deçan said.

The village of Loxhë and Raushiq, near the town of Peja ('Pec'), were bombarded by Serb military jets too, local sources said.

There have been killed and wounded in today's offensive against the Albanian villages in the region, local sources said. The name of a killed Albanian has been made known only - Ahmet Deli Shala (30).

Early in the morning today (Saturday), Serbian military and paramilitary police troops launched a large-scale attack against the villages along the Deçan - Peja roadway, in western Kosova.

Reports said 46 tanks, four military jets, eight helicopter gunships, as well as huge troops on 20 trucks and many other vehicles were involved in the offensive operation against the Albanian villages.

A dozen villages were attacked today, eight in the municipality of Deçan - Junik, Beleg, Isniq, Lëbushë, Strellc, Prapaçan, Llukë e Epërme, Carrabreg i Poshtëm, Dubovik and Krushec - and two in the municipality of Peja, the villages of Loxhë and Raushiq, local sources said.

Meanwhile, the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) said the villages of Baran and Vranoc in Lugu i Baranit (Barani Valley) were shelled today by Serb military and police troops.

Serb shells landed very near to where the civilian population - displaced people from Deçan, Peja, Malisheva and Gjakova - had been crowded.

A population of more than 50,000 has been under siege, under a ring of steel by Serbian forces, for a week now.

Reports said they have been streaming towards the villages of the Lugu i Baranit (Barani Valley) in the wake of today's Serb offensive.

Meanwhile, Mr. Musa Berisha, chairman of the chapter of Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) in Deçan said Serb shelling was still continuing at 14:00 hrs.

In an interview with the VOA Albanian Section he failed to offer details on the targets of the shelling in the afternoon.