into the towns of Tetovo and Gostivar. With the formation of an insurgency, the National Liberation Front (NLA) began seizing territory in and around the Tetovo area. Skirmishes between the insurgency and government forces became commonplace in other portions of the country. The Macedonian forces, numbering more than 3,000, held a limited amount of armour and artillery. Reportedly, they possessed a number of armoured personnel carriers, 105 mm and 122 mm Howitzers, ex-Bulgarian T-55 tanks. The bulk of their force consisted of reservists at the brink of conflict. These numbers were to rapidly rise in the following months as the military expenditures of Macedonia quadrupled to almost 7% of GDP, which resulted in major purchases of military hardware mainly from Ukraine and Bulgaria, and the mobilisation of special police forces like the Lions and Tigers. By the height of the conflict, the whole 1st Mechanized Brigade was stationed in and around Tetovo municipality. The NLA, a mainly guerrilla force, had only an assortment of rockets, assault weapons, and mortars. However, they had the advantage of concealed positions in the mountains ringing the city. Weapons and supplies found their way from Kosovo to the frontlines over the Šar Mountains through horse caravans. Mounts Baltepe and Kale were major strongpoints, both of which held ancient fortresses left over from the Ottoman Empire. The rebels constructed a series of trenches and bunkers in defence. Battle Opening phase During the afternoon of 14 March, ethnic Albanians held a nationalist rally in town. Around this time, machine gun fire opened up on Macedonian police from the Baltepes hill. The confrontation in Tetovo began when about 15 rebels opened fire with rifles in the suburb of Kale about 1.2 miles north of the city centre and in the nearby village of Selce. The NLA proceeded to engage Macedonian forces with sniper fire and mortar attacks. The first civilian death was an Albanian taxi driver who was killed on the first day of the rebellion in the old Ottoman neighbourhood of Koltuk when the police opened fire with machine guns indiscriminately, even though the main fighting at the time was taking place 1.2 miles away, beyond the Kale, the fortress above the city, in the village of Lavce. Fifteen Macedonian police and a NATO German soldier were also wounded when joint barracks in the outskirts of the town where hit by mortar fire. The next day, the