Former ethnic Albanian rebel leader wounded in car attack

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - A former Kosovo Liberation Army commander was wounded Friday in a shootout with supporters of an ethnic Albanian political rival, witnesses and sources said.

Ramush Haradinaj was traveling before dawn with a relative, Daut Haradinaj, when the two were attacked in the Kosovo village of Streoce, said sources in Haradinaj's political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.

Details of the gunbattle were in dispute, but the incident raises concern about political violence within the ethnic Albanian community.

Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander-turned-politician, was taken to the U.S. military hospital at Camp Bondsteel following the early morning incident, which occurred in the western village of Streoce. NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Slaten said Haradinaj's condition was stable.

Daut Haradinaj, who was also injured, is a sector commander of the Kosovo Protection Force, which was organized as a civil emergency unit after the KLA was officially disbanded last year.

When the protection corps was organized last year, NATO assured both the Kosovo Serb community and international governments that its officers would be placed under strict control and that the organization would be involved exclusively in humanitarian work and disaster relief.

However, U.N. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, disputed the version of the attack released by Ramush Haradinaj's party. They refused to give their own account because the case is under investigation by U.N. civilian police.

In Streoce, however, Sadik Musa claimed the Haradinajs and some of their followers attacked their home about 1 a.m. with automatic weapons. Musa told Associated Press Television News that he and his relatives returned fire, wounding the two Haradinajs.

He spoke in front of his home, which was pocked with bullet holes. Italian peacekeepers and U.N. police stood guard outside the walled compound, where two bullet-riddled cars were parked and bloodstains were visible on the ground.

Musa and his supporters said the attack was launched because they support Haradinaj's rivals in the Democratic League of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim Rugova. Musa said Ramush Haradinaj abducted his brother last year because he was fighting in a rival ethnic Albanian militia led by Bujar Bukoshi, who is a member of Rugova's party.

''He wants to win the election in Kosovo by force, by killing his rivals,'' another man in the compound, Beslim Balaj, said of Haradinaj.

The Associated Press telephoned Ramush Haradinaj's party for comment on the allegations but was told no spokesman was available.

Ramush Haradinaj was a leading commander in the ethnic Albanian guerrilla army during the 18-month conflict with the Serbs that prompted NATO military intervention last year.

After the conflict ended and NATO-led peacekeepers replaced Serb forces here, Haradinaj organized what is believed to be the third-largest political party in the ethnic Albanian community.

In May, Haradinaj scuffled with Russian peacekeepers and got a black eye after they stopped him at a checkpoint. He was briefly detained after two weapons were found in his car without proper paperwork.

NATO said he had attempted to flee and that peacekeepers and military police ''subdued him.''