US troops in Kosovo detain two for links to terrorism Agence France Presse

US troops in Kosovo detain two for links to terrorism
Agence France Presse - February 2, 2004 Monday

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, Feb 2 - US forces in Kosovo have detained two ethnic Albanians suspected of links to terrorism after they turned themselves in at a US military base in the UN-administered province, an official said Monday.

Avdil Jakupi was detained for "felonious acts and ties to terrorism in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," Major Chris Cole, spokesman for the US forces told AFP.

Jakupi was detained at Camp Bondsteel together with Adnan Abazi, who was carrying an identification card of the Albanian National Army (ANA), a little known extremist group branded as terrorist in Kosovo and held responsible for several bombings in neighbouring Macedonia.

The two have been handed over to United Nations police in the province, which has taken over the investigation.

"They were both arrested for terrorism, for being active members of the ANA," Dmitri Prahin, spokesman for the UN police said.

Last September Macedonian authorities layed siege to several Albanian-inhabited villages in a search for Jakupi, known as Commander Cakalla (Big Mouth). After a several-day standoff, authorities launched an operation that left three dead, but failed to locate their chief suspect.

The ANA has claimed responsibility for several violent attacks in Macedonia, as well as in Kosovo and elsewhere in southern Serbia.

It is believed to include several fighters from the seven-month ethnic Albanian rebellion of 2001 in Macedonia, but promotes a more extreme version of Albanian nationalism than the groups behind the previous uprising.

Albanian-dominated Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since June 1999.