March 9, 1999
Web posted at: 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT)

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Serbian police and Yugoslav army forces shelled ethnic Albanian villages in the hills north of Kosovo's capital Pristina on Tuesday, driving more civilians and separatist rebels from the area.

Also Tuesday, Yugoslav authorities issued arrest warrants for leading members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army -- including three peace negotiators -- whom Belgrade considers terrorists.

The latest developments coincided with the arrival in Belgrade of Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. architect of the 1995 peace accord that stopped the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Holbrooke and U.S. peace mediator Chris Hill were expected to meet with senior Yugoslav government leaders, including President Slobodan Milosevic, to try to press them into agreeing to a draft Kosovo peace accord.

Ethnic Albanian leaders are said to have agreed to the draft document, which international mediators would like to see signed by both parties at peace talks in France on March 15.

KLA under attack

"We're fighting now, changing position," said 28-year-old Naim Bardiqi, a medical officer for the KLA, as he passed a point north of the village of Becic with members of his brigade.

"We aren't exactly sure where their units are or ours either. The Serbs are attacking along the border between two of our (operational) zones. ... They want to come between these two zones. It's an important point for them, a strategic attack."

Moments later two Serbian rockets slammed into the brigade headquarters, sending debris flying but causing no injuries.

The sound of near continuous firing, including tank and machine-gun fire, was audible to the east.

Thousands of refugees cut off

To the south, near the border with Macedonia, thousands of people forced from their homes by fighting were trapped in the hills by Yugoslav army troops who refused to allow aid workers to come to their assistance.

"This area is currently under siege. We are looking at a population of up to 4,000 which are completely cut off from the roads," said Paula Ghedini, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency's Belgrade office.

Serbs were on the receiving end of the year-old Kosovo war as well.

The Serbian-run Pristina Media Center reported that two Serbian policemen were killed Monday when their car hit an anti-tank mine in southwestern Kosovo.

It said another three policemen had been seriously wounded by the mine, and alleged it was laid by "Albanian terrorists."

Correspondent Tom Mintier Reuters contributed to this report.

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