Fleeing Albanians shot in the back by police The discovery of the bodies of five men shot in the head and chest in a village five miles north of Skopje yesterday prompted the accusation of war crimes by the Macedonian police and further undermined the chance of resolving the country's conflict. The bodies were found in Ljuboten, a mainly Albanian village, two days after teams of police swept though the village in what was described as an anti-terrorist operation. Local people say the men were shot in the back as they tried to flee the police, and deny that they were members of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla group the National Liberation Army, a claim backed up by a western observer who was nearby at the time. The observer said the police operation and the killing that followed may have been prompted by a clash between the NLA and the security forces close by. It is the first time such a serious allegation has been made since the insurgency began in February. The men were all killed on Sunday afternoon after the security forces shelled Ljuboten and the surrounding area. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Committee of the Red Cross had tried to enter the village but had been denied access by the Macedonian police. The Guardian was among the first to go into the village since Sunday. Relatives of the dead say the police began to move into the village and set buildings