Underground Albanian group says it blew up Kosovo railway bridge Deutsche Presse

Underground Albanian group says it blew up Kosovo railway bridge
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - April 14, 2003

Pristina - The underground organization calling itself the Albanian National Army (AKSH) Monday took responsibility for the weekend explosion which damaged a railway bridge in northern Kosovo on the border with Serbia, admitting that two of its members died in the action.

"Special forces of the Adem Jashari division have blown up the metal railway bridge, which links this Albanian occupied territory with Belgrade", AKSH said in a statement posted on its website.

It also announced its intention to carry out further acts like Saturday's explosion. "Mitrovica is Albanian land and we will not allow it to remain occupied by the Serbs. AKSH has decided to cut all links of the Albanian lands with Belgrade", the statement said.

Northern Kosovo, including the northern part of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, is inhabited mainly by Serbs and in practical terms remains cut off from the rest of Kosovo, despite international pressure.

U.N. authorities in Kosovo have constantly announced measures to integrate this part with the rest of Kosovo, but without much success, mainly due to the preference of the Kosovo Serbs to remain politically and administratively linked with Serbia's capital Belgrade.

AKSH has already taken responsibility for several attacks in Macedonia and in southern Serbia, but this is the first time it has done so for an action inside Kosovo.

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