07 April 2001
US Army Links Shot Man to Smuggling

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

VITINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - An ethnic Albanian man shot by American troops in this Kosovo town was believed involved in ``smuggling and extremist activities,'' the U.S. Army said Saturday, a description used for those suspected of aiding rebels in nearby Macedonia.

The shooting occurred Friday during a raid on a pizzeria by troops from the 82nd Airborne Division on a pizzeria in this town in the U.S. sector about 30 miles south of the Kosovo capital Pristina.

In a statement, the U.S. command said troops entered the pizzeria ``and spotted the Albanian male, a suspected extremist, and asked him to step outside for questioning. While exiting, the man pushed a U.S. soldier and fled on foot.''

He was shot in the left shoulder after pulling out ``what could have been a weapon,'' the statement said. The man, whose name was withheld, ran wounded into a nearby building, where troops arrested him.

He was reported in stable condition at a hospital at the U.S. headquarters at Camp Bondsteel, the military said.

``The Albanian man is involved with smuggling and extremist activities and is known to be armed,'' Col. Tom Gross said. ``Our soldiers were threatened and took appropriate actions to defend themselves.''

NATO  sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the pizzeria is a suspected hangout for supporters and sympathizers of the National Liberation Army, which launched attacks last month against government troops in Macedonia, about six miles south of here.

American and other peacekeepers have stepped up efforts to curb the smuggling of weapons and fighters from U.N.-administered Kosovo into Macedonia.

Friends of the wounded man, interviewed in the pizzeria Saturday, denied the American version of events and insisted their friend was armed with nothing more than a mobile telephone. None of those interviewed would give their names nor that of their wounded friend.

``He did not threaten them at any point, but still they shot him in the back,'' one man said.

According to the victim's friends, three U.S. soldiers and an Albanian interpreter entered the pizzeria late Friday afternoon and headed straight for the suspect. They ordered him out of the bar.

``As he was getting away, one of the soldiers pointed his gun and shot him in the back,'' one man said.

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