Thousands of Kosovars mourn Albanian militants killed in Macedonia

People are seen working at the site where militants killed earlier this month in neighbouring Macedonia will be buried, at Pristina's Martyrs’ cemetery in Kosovo May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Thousands of people turned out in Kosovo's capital on Tuesday to pay their respects to eight ethnic Albanian militants killed earlier this month in neighbouring Macedonia, whose government labelled them as terrorists.

Eight Macedonian policemen and 10 Albanian militants, nine of them from Kosovo, were killed in a day-long battle in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo on May 9. It was the country's most serious violence since Western diplomacy pulled it back from the brink of civil war in 2001.