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KFOR Detains 13 Suspected UCPMB, Seizes Weapons
KFOR Detains 13 Suspected UCPMB, Seizes Weapons
KFOR Detains 13 Suspected UCPMB, Seizes Weapons
Thorin Sprandel
Camp Monteith PAO
Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) in the early morning hours of Dec. 20 and
seized a large weapons cache near the village of Surlane in southeastern Kosovo.
The joint U.S. and British patrol detained the suspects after observing their
movements in and out of the five kilometer wide buffer between provincial Kosovo and
The patrol apprehended the suspects, who were traveling on tractors and in four-
wheel drive trucks, and seized their equipment including 30 rocket propelled grenade
warheads, four rocket launchers, 50 hand grenades, eight anti-tank mines, one box of
explosives, five AK-47 rifles, two light machine guns, seven long-barreled weapons, two
12.7 mm machine guns, three .50 caliber machine guns, two pistols and ammunition.
At about the same time, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment
observed four men loitering in the village of Pidic. The soldiers went to the village and
conducted a cordon and search operation of three houses. No additional illegal weapons
The detainment and seizure follows a week of violence in and near the GSZ
established in June 1999 after the two Yugoslavian provinces signed the Military and
weapons at a car of four ethnic Serbians, wounding one, near the village of Mucibaba
Dec. 15. Three days later, a joint U.S. and Russian patrol received small arms fire
directed at their position from suspected UCPMB guerillas after preparing demolition
charges to complete a boundary closure mission. The KFOR patrol returned fire and
The UCPMB was established in the Presevo valley of western Serbia after the
disbandment of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac are all
located within 15 km of the GSZ in an area that is home to roughly 80,000 ethnic
Albanians.