Clashes Flare in Kosovo Amid Talks to Free Abducted Troops

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — New fighting flared in Kosovo on Saturday, adding urgency to international mediators’ efforts to avoid wider violence and gain the release of eight Yugoslav soldiers held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the Serbian province.

Clashes between Yugoslav army forces and the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army were reported by both Serbian and Albanian sources Saturday as negotiators worked past an afternoon deadline set by the army for the soldiers’ release.

The Serbian Media Center reported that two police officers were wounded in fighting in a village near Podujevo, a town 20 miles north of the provincial capital, Pristina, and east of the site where the soldiers were abducted Friday. According to the Kosovo Information Center, which is run by ethnic Albanians, government forces attacked five villages in the area.

Reporters heard shells exploding and saw refugees fleeing from at least five villages around Podujevo. Sounds of firing in the north were heard late Saturday in Pristina.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were trying to persuade the rebels to release the soldiers, who were captured after they took a wrong turn into rebel territory.

International officials fear that an escalation of violence will destroy an already shaky cease-fire reached in October to end eight months of fighting in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90% of the population.

Reacting to the abductions, government forces gathered early Saturday for a retaliatory crackdown, moving from Pristina toward Kosovska Mitrovica and Podujevo.

In a separate confrontation, three KLA rebels were shot dead by Serbian police near the western town of Decani on Saturday, the Serbian Media Center reported.