The Macedonian army on Saturday "tightened the noose" around villages held by ethnic Albanian gunmen in hills north of the capital Skopje, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
The army pressed ahead with its offensive, opening up on rebel positions in the villages of Slupcane and Ozirare with artillery and tanks, said Markovski, who said the operation aimed to push the rebels from the area which controls the water supply to Kumanovo.
The northern city of 100,000 people has been without running water for four days, and health officials have warned of the possible outbreak of diseases if the problem is not resolved quickly.
Markovski gave no details of the offensive, launched early Friday, merely saying the "noose is tightening around Slupcane and Ozirare".
He said the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) had returned fire with rocket launchers, machineguns and sniper fire.
NLA fighters entered the largely Albanian town of Aracinovo Friday, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Slupcane and just a few kilometres from the edge of Skopje.
The move puts the guerrillas within mortar range of the outskirts of the capital for the first time.
The rebels have held a handful of villages in the foothills of the Black Mountains for more than a month despite an almost a constant artillery bombardment which has pinned down around 12,000 civilians in the area.
The European Union's high representative for foreign policy, Javier Solana, was meeting Saturday with President Boris Trajkovski and government leaders to try to trash out a solution to the four-month crisis which has pushed Macedonia to the brink of civil war -- SKOPJE (AFP)
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