Three policemen disappear after clash in Serbia

The clash occurred near the village Konculj, on the administrative borer between Serbia and Kosovo. Police checkpoints in Konculj are the most frequent targets of the attacks.

The Albanian-dominated province is striving for independence after years of ethnic violence that NATO aimed to end with an intervention against Yugoslavia last year.

But volatility has spread into the Presevo valley after Yugoslav and Serbian scurity forces were forced to withdraw from Kosovo and a five-kilometer strip of land along the border.

In the area, parts of which are also dominated by ethnic Albanians, a guerrilla group calling itself the "Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army" emerged around a year ago, launching dozens of attacks in which several policemen and attackers died. Extremists among Albanians in southern Serbia said that they seek to secede the area and join it with Kosovo.

(la/dpa)