Al kaida on Kosovo
Godunov Boris
(Rocklin CA: Prima Publishing Co., 1999, ISBN 0-7615-1968-8)
p. 399
The mujahideen established close relations with the key clans from the
Drenica area in central Kosovo, the birthplace of the UCK, including
Suleyman Selimi, "the Sultan," who comes from this area and is commander in
chief of the UCK forces inside Kosovo. In these operations the mujahideen
have already demonstrated their fearlessness and all-out commitment to the
Muslim population. An example of this was the last stand of a mujahideen
battalion of some fifty fighters under the command of Sheikh Muhammad
al-Adalbi (also known as Abu-al-Abbas} north of the village of Meja. The
battalion "was completely martyred following a ferocious battle with Serbian
forces deep inside Kosovo" in which the Saudi and Egyptian mujahideen held
the line, enabling the UCK to evacuate the Albanian civilians, destroy the
local villages in an orderly scorched-earth withdrawal, and then reach
Albanian sanctuary. The UCK destroyed the villages to alienate and
radicalize the population so that they would fight the Serbs and to coerce
the civilians to escape into exile so that there can be no normalization and
Kosovo Albanian population under the control of the Serbs. This is a classic
"revolutionary" strategy that has been implemented in several previous
Islamic Liberation struggles such as those in Afghanistan, the Philippines,
and Bosnia. A NATO spokesman attributed the emptying and destruction of Meja
and surrounding villages to "Serbian ethnic cleansing."
With the Serb forces and NATO bombing eliminating the UCK's ability to
operate inside Kosovo, the Islamists are also preparing for what they see as
the fateful phase of fighting: when they wrest Kosovo from hostile
non-Muslim hands, either Serb or NATO's...