Based on the density of the artillery fire, it is assumed that about 40 large caliber cannons and several tens of mortars and infantry guns were used in the attack. According to the residents of Tetovo contacted by Dnevnik, fierce firefights between terrorists and Macedonian security forces again took place early in the morning, between 2 and 5am. Terrorists attacked the positions of the defenders of Tetovo with three rocket launchers and automatic weapons near the city socer stadium. The attack was repulsed and according to the residents, one of the terrorists was killed.
Sporadic firefights continued throughout the morning. Later, there was a quiet period between 10am and 12pm when the Macedonian artillery shelled the region of the villages Selce and Lavce. According to the official sources, the headquarters of terrorists are located in these villages.
The direct attack started at 4pm. The houses in Tetovo were shaking from artillery cannonades. Due to weak response by the terrorists, mostly against exposed Police positions, residents of Tetovo dared to massively return to the streets and watch the artillery battle.
Two days ago, one resident of Tetovo had a close encounter with the terrorists, at the moment when he, in spite of the ban, headed to the zone where the terrorists were active to feed his cattle. According to him, he was wounded in the leg, and three terrorists helped him to get down to Tetovo. At the moment, his life is not in danger and he is being treated at home. So far there is no information about casualties.
During the curfew two nights ago, three residents of Tetovo were taken into custody to the local police station. They did not have the permit for moving through the city during curfew and were released from custody the following morning at six o'clock after the end of the curfew. According to confirmed information from police sources, a sniper was based on the minaret of one mosque in the city. He was sporadically active. The police surrounded the object and most likely arrested the sniper. There is no official confirmation of that.
However, as we learned unofficially, during the dinner with the state and political leadership two days ago Solana in conversation with president Boris Trajkovski asked the Macedonian authorities to cease fire and to cancel the announced offensive against the terrorists.
Our sources claim that Solana with that move simply "tried his luck", since after forceful statements about support for Macedonia by NAATO secretary general George Robertson Solana does not have the mandate to demand that Skopje cease fire and negotiate with the terrorists.
President Trajkovski decidedly rejected Solana's demands and last night, at the meeting of the chairs of Parliaments of south eastern European countries he stated that "Macedonia will never allow to be forced to discuss human rights by threat of violence".
Yesterday, early in the morning, the terrorists responded with a statement, in which they complain that they in vain elected the president for whom they hoped that he would be "president of all Macedonian citizens". They appealed to all political and non-political Albanian subjects "not to fool themselves by thinking that their rights will be served to them on a platter". The statement still hadn't made it to newspaper offices in Skopje and journalists were already hearing news that ministers from the DPA had left the government session and their offices.
Immediately after that Albanian political parties issued a joint statement in which they called on the "armed groups at the territory of our state to surrender arms and peacefully return to their homes"; they called on the government to "speed up reforms burdening interethnic relations, that the government has decided to implement long-time ago", and on the European Union "to assist the implementation of these reforms."
Our source claims that the Albanian side is now feverishly trying to put together a negotiating platform. The special representative of the OSCE, American Robert Frowick, and German Gerd Arens, who has previous experience of mediating in Macedonia, will probably be the mediators in these negotiations. According to the reports of journalists from Tetovo, Macedonian authorities have temporarily postponed the offensive, expecting further development of the political situation. However, somewhat after 4pm, the Macedonian security forces started fierce artillery barrage on the terrorist held positions along the whole frontline.
We learned that the Macedonian authorities are prepared to continue dialogue on political demands of Albanians, but only with legal representatives of the Albanians participating in the government, i.e. the DPA [PDSH]. The government will not accept negotiations about federalization or cantonization of the country, but could speed up the process of decentralization of government, provide conditions for exercise of Albanian rights guaranteed by the constitution, such as parallel official use of their language in local government units in which they are in majority, as speed up the implementation of "Stoel's [private Albanian language] University".
A senior government official stated for Dnevnik that there will be no negotiations until the attacks of Albanian terrorist cease on the whole territory of the country. In parallel with the preparations for these talks, Macedonian authorities continue to take forceful measures in the battle with terrorists and are purchasing different types of weaponry and ammunition in preparation for new, wide-ranging military actions, which, according to some unconfirmed reports, the terrorists are currently preparing.