Assault On The Serbs: Police fire on anti-US rioters

POLICE FIRED tear gas and chased hundreds of anti-Nato protesters through the capital, Skopje, yesterday after a crowd attacked the US embassy to protest at the Nato attacks.

I saw three bright flashes in the sky over the capital and small-arms fire could be heard while police helicopters clattered overhead. Angry protesters were forced back from the American embassy after pulling down its perimeter fence and setting fire to cars parked near by. Police drove the rioters away and cordoned off government buildings and those of Western organisations.

The Macedonian Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, said that some 20,000 ethnic Albanian refugees had poured in from Kosovo.

"If responsibility for the catastrophe in Kosovo rests on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, then the spillover of this catastrophe here is the responsibility of the US and the EU," Mr Georgievski said.