SKOPJE, (Islamweb & Agencies) -Macedonia faced the threat of all-out war Wednesday amid fresh fighting in Tetovo between ethnic Albanian fighters and security forces, as thousands of people rioted in the capital Skopje, targeting Western embassies and offices in a show of mounting ethnic intolerance. (Read photo caption below).
About 2,000 Slav demonstrators, many of them young, hooded and armed with sticks set fire to vehicles and buildings late Tuesday, smashing the windows of the British and German embassies and a McDonald's restaurant.
The riots came after heavy fighting broke out again and continued late into Tuesday night in the northwestern town of Tetovo, confirming fears that a ceasefire agreed on July 5 was in shreds.
Earlier, Macedonia closed its border with neighbouring Kosovo, which it accuses of fuelling the revolt for equal rights by the country's ethnic Albanian minority. It also accused NATO of helping the fighters, who began their uprising for greater Albanian rights in February.
In Tetovo, heavy explosions and bursts of gunfire could be heard just 200 (yards) from the town centre. Much of the area was deserted, with many residents having fled the fighting.
An AFP journalist said a Macedonian army barracks, which was hit by mortar shells on Monday, came under fire again as did a nearby police checkpoint.
Artillery and mortar fire was reported late into Tuesday night, but the Slav-dominated army spokesman here told AFP that it then calmed down.
On Monday, two people were killed, one of them a 12-year-old girl, and 31 were injured in more than six hours of clashes in and around Tetovo.
In the riots later Tuesday the protestors set fire to a dozen vehicles belonging to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and thick smoke could be seen rising above their parking lot.
Armed with sticks, the protestors shouting "Macedonia! Macedonia!" marched towards the parliament building, where they yelled "The Albanians are terrorising us" and "NATO, open your eyes!"
Around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT), some 2,000 protestors marched towards the US embassy premises, pelting it with stones and chanting anti-American slogans.
But most of them turned back less than an hour later, faced with strong police and security presence blocking the access to the embassy.
The ceasefire agreement had bought time for EU envoy Francois Leotard and US ambassador James Pardew to work on a political settlement to the dispute over greater Albanian rights with Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders.
But as their talks lost momentum last week, when the Slavs rejected a list of Albanian demands for changes to the constitution, the uprising that began in February gained pace again and fuelled fears of a new Balkans war.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A Macedonian policeman aims a rocket launcher in Tetovo, west of the capital Skopje, July 24, 2001. The casualty toll from Macedonia's ethnic violence rose and the scope of the crisis widened as Albanian rebels declared for the first time they were fighting in the west of the Balkan state. (Reuters)