Albanian National Army


The Albanian National Army, is an Albanian paramilitary organization and former terrorist group which operates in North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. The group opposes the Ohrid Framework Agreement which ended the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia between members of the National Liberation Army and Macedonian security forces.

History

It was formed in 2001 in Macedonia and, in 2003, the UNMIK declared it a terrorist organization. The organization is associated with FBKSh, its political wing.
The ANA appeared in Kosovo in 2003, where on March 7, two members trying to detonate a bomb were shot and killed by Serbian police. In 2007, a video was aired by Kosovar television stations depicting a band of medium-armed, masked individuals intercepting cars. In October, 2007 the unit declared it would seize the Serb exclave of North Kosovo by force if the Kosovo Protection Force did not occupy it by 1 November 2007. The ANA has claimed that it is patrolling North Kosovo to prevent incursions by the Czar Lazar Guard.
In early November 2007, insurgents of the "Political Advisory Body of the Kosovo Liberation Army" suffered a minor crackdown, dubbed Operation Mountain Storm by the Macedonian armed forces in north-western Macedonia. According to Macedonian authorities; six members of the KLA were killed.
On 13 November 2007, a video was aired to the public, an exclusive interview with a leader of the ANA patrolling in the covert areas of North Kosovo, recruiting 20 new men. The leader stated that ANA stands at 12,000 men altogether and has called the Kosovar population for a boycott of then-forthcoming elections.
The ANA had committed an attack on 29 April 2010 on the border between Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia, in which a Macedonian policeman was killed. In the skirmish, one ANA fighter was injured.
The group has been removed from the list of terrorist groups.