Dear All, 

Today, as you may have already heard on the BBC news, all around the world, there was information about two “innocent” people shot dead by Macedonian special forces in Tetovo around noon. Well there are the photos 10m away from the event. You can clearly see that they are dressed like civilians, but you can also see the grenade in his hand, lying on the street. Reconstruction of the events as seen: The Wolfs (Macedonian special forces) randomly stop cars for the usual check up. One car with two albaninas. The driver gets out, goes to the back to open the trunk. The passenger gets out, reaches into his pocket. The army man stops him when he sees the grenade in his hand. The Albanian manages to throw one at the army vehicle, where the rest of the army men are. At the same time “The Wolfs” start shooting at them and killed both of them. The passenger manages to reach for another grenade that stayed in his hand while dropping almost dead on the street. Dies couple of minutes later, still holding the second grenade. Luckily none of the grenades exploded. The gas from the car was all over the street. I, situated at the police gun-nest, was lucky, not to have a grenade explode in front of my face, and still get to be the closest one to document the event. 

Till tomorrow….. Marko.

Still alive and holding the bomb...
Dead terrorist with bomb in hand.

Outside links:

• Dnevnik's coverage of the event (in Macedonian).

While the police and the army forces, supported by artillery, cleaned the KLA positions in the hills above Tetovo, most dramatic incident took place in the city. Two Albanian terrorists (aged 57 and 37) attempted a treacherous attack on the Macedonian army checkpoint near the city stadium.

The soldiers were doing routine search for of passing cars, looking for hidden weapons. Upon revealing that the terrorists have bombs on their person, they tried to hurl them at the armored vehicle parked nearby. Professional soldiers from the "wolf" division opened fire and shot the terrorists dead on the spot, preventing carnage of tens of people were present in the vicinity, including many reporters who filmed the event. One of the bombs remained in the hand of the shot bomber after his death, and had to be deactivated by experts who managed to reach the crime scene about two hours after the event.

• CNN's coverage (with video).

Photos by Marko Georgiev, text/editing by Filip Stojanovski & Macedonia Search