SKOPJE, March 4: At least two of the seven men killed by Macedonian police in a weekend clash were Pakistani nationals who fought in Afghanistan, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said on Monday.

“We have hints that say the two came from Pakistan and fought in Afghanistan,” Boskovski told journalists.

“After their participation in Afghanistan, they were transferred to the Balkans, to countries neighbouring” Macedonia, he said.

On Saturday, Macedonian police shot dead in an ambush seven people who were thought to be part of an international terror network targeting US, British and German interests in the Balkan country.

Medical doctors who examined the bodies said the seven men carried Arab identification cards and we aged between 20 and 30, according to press reports.

The doctors said they found traces of material proving that some of the men had fired weapons, the reports said.

Boskovski linked the incident Saturday to the arrest of two Jordanians and two Bosnians late last month, which had not been previously announced.

“Groups are looking to put into question our efforts to reestablish confidence” between orthodox Macedonians and ethnic Albanian Muslims.

The Ljuboten region in which the attack took place was the site of heavy fighting last year as ethnic Albanian rebels waged a seven-month campaign for independence.

A peace accord has done little to ease the tension between the government and the rebels, many of whom previously fought in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against Slobodan Milosevic’s Belgrade regime.—AFP