page_title: April 23, 1998 Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: April 23, 1998 Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush / Timeline / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Weapons confiscated from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They were being stored at MEU Service Support Group (MSSG)-26 Compound at Camp Montieth. The Marines and sailors of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are helping to enforce the implementation of the military technical agreement and to provide peace and stability to Kosovo during Operation JOINT GUARDIAN.
context_page_description: On the morning of April 23, 1998, a band of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters was ambushed by a much smaller group of Yugoslav Army border guards near the Košare outpost, just west of Dečani. The fighters had been trying to smuggle weapons and supplies into Kosovo via northern Albania. Nineteen were killed in the ensuing attack, and a further two were captured. The VJ did not sustain any casualties. Some of the militants retreated back to Albania, while others managed to break through the ambush and make it past the Yugoslav border, into Kosovo. Following the clash, the VJ confiscated a large quantity of arms that the militants had been transporting.
  Villagers in northern Albania and western Kosovo reported hearing explosions in the vicinity of the ambush and seeing helicopters flying overhead for much of the following day. Albanian officials later alleged that two of these helicopters had violated the country's airspace, and Albania moved elite army units to the Yugoslav border in response. Yugoslav authorities accused Albania of backing the KLA.
context_section_description: During Milošević's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Delić testified that an investigative judge from Niš visited the Košare outpost shortly after fighting had ceased, and conducted an on-site investigation. Journalists were not allowed to visit the site due to "security concerns". On April 24, Western reporters saw VJ personnel digging mortar positions south of Dečani, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) from the Albanian border. The troops said they had been exchanging gunfire with the rebels over the previous two days.
  The U.S. State Department acknowledged that it had received reports of "myriad deaths" along the Albanian border. State Department spokesman James Rubin called the situation in Kosovo "quite troubling, extremely dangerous." U.S. officials said they would push for a freeze on Yugoslavia's overseas assets and an international ban on foreign trade with the country in response to the violence. In turn, the Yugoslav military issued a statement requesting that the West put pressure on Kosovo Albanian leaders "to give up and denounce terrorism if they truly wanted a peaceful and political solution to Kosovo's problems." The statement also accused Albania of "training, infiltrating and illegally arming the terrorists," and demanded that the West pressure the country to desist from such activities. Albania denied supporting the KLA insurgency, and alleged that two Yugoslav helicopters had violated its airspace. Yugoslavia denied that there had been any violations. Consequently, the Albanian Army and police were placed on high alert, and the country stationed elite troops along its border.
  On April 27, nine of the fallen militants were buried in Erec. Some 400 ethnic Albanians attended their funerals. The dead ranged in age from seventeen to forty-five years old. Villagers claimed that some of the dead had been arrested days before their deaths and thus could not have been ambushed, as the Yugoslav authorities claimed. Such claims could not be independently verified by Western reporters. In a 1998 report, Amnesty International affirmed that the 19 men had been killed in an ambush while trying to smuggle weapons into Kosovo.
caption: A sample of weapons confiscated from the KLA, July 1999
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