Breaking News - Albanian rebel memorial removed by Serbia police

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Sasa Djordjevic / AFP - Getty ImagesA bulldozer prepares to remove a monument to ethnic Albanians in the Serb town of Presevo, early Sunday. By Branko Filipovic, ReutersPRESEVO, Serbia - More than 200 heavily-armed and masked Serbian police took down a memorial to ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Serbia's south overnight, trying to end a row that has highlighted still-simmering tension in the region.

Security forces deployed armored personnel carriers to cordon off the main square in the southern, mainly Albanian, town of Presevo, and hauled away the memorial bearing the names of 27 guerrillas who died during an insurgency in the region in 2001, a Reuters reporter at the scene said on Sunday.

The scale of the operation, which followed weeks of threats and counter-threats between Serbian government officials and local ethnic Albanians, highlighted how fragile the situation remains in the south, which borders Serbia's former Kosovo province.

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