serb troops clash with rebels in Southern Serbia

(15 May 2001)

1. Various of Serb police, some of them wearing masks, walking along road into village
2. Serb police ducking and running holding machine guns along road into village
3. Jeep with machine gun on top driving into village
4. Soldiers running
5. Mid shot abandoned weapons in houses in village
6. Close-up abandoned weapons in houses in village
7. Wide shot deserted street with one soldier outside
8. Close-up Serbian policeman in hiding at an emplacement
9. Tank
10. Close-up sand bags
11. Tank firing grenade
12. Two Serb police behind sand bags pointing guns
13. Serb aiming his gun from inside house out of window
14. Wide shot village
15. Various shots Serb police running along road
16. Police running across street
17. Tank enters village and fires grenade at bunker
18. Wide shot as dust clears
19. Various of police in village


STORYLINE:

Backed by tanks, Yugoslav army and Serbian police units clashed Tuesday with ethnic Albanian rebels in house-to-house fighting as they pressed their bid to retake a southern village claimed by the insurgents.

A rebel spokesman who goes by the name of Commander Profi said five of the guerrillas were killed by government troops since Monday in Oraovica, just outside a volatile buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of southern Serbia.

In a telephone call, he claimed that rebel positions had not changed since Monday.

But reporters at the scene saw several destroyed rebel bunkers containing abandoned assault rifles, ammunition and bloodied uniforms, indicating advances by the joint army and police forces battling the insurgents.

Fierce exchanges of machine-gun fire echoed on Tuesday in the village, about one kilometre (less than a mile) north of the town of Presevo, as the government troops moved slowly through Oraovica, toward the section of the village still in rebel hands.

A Serbian tank fired at a distant bunker, sending sand bags up into the air.

At least one Serbian policeman was injured in the street battles.

Several houses were destroyed, and several thousand civilians - most of Oraovica's population - fled to neighbouring Presevo.

Shooting subsided shortly before noon, and the government forces issued a 1 p.m. (1100GMT) deadline for the rebels to leave the village, saying Yugoslav and Serb troops would hold their fire until then.

The government press centre said guerillas who surrender will be granted amnesty from prosecution.

But the lull in fighting continued past the deadline.

Police officials said this was to give time for possible international mediation with the rebels, either to surrender of leave Oraovica.

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