Croatian President Stjepan Mesić sent a note of condolence to his President of Macedonia Branko Crvenkovski after the fall of an army helicopter near Skopje that caused the death of eleven Macedonian soldiers.
The Russian-produced Mi-17 helicopter crashed ten kilometres south of the Macedonian capital for an unknown reason. The pilot and ten passengers on board, all soldiers, were killed in the accident.
The soldiers were returning home from Bosnia-Herzegovina where they had participated in the EU peace mission, said EUFOR's spokesperson in Sarajevo Dave Fielder.