Five Albanian soldiers injured in shell explosion

TIRANA, Feb. 24 – Five Albanian military personnel were injured by a shell exploded at a former military base in northern Albania on Saturday. The army was transporting shells from a closed military base in Gjegjan, about 170 kilometers north of the capital, Tirana. The explosion occurred at 9 a.m. and none of the soldiers was injured seriously. They were transporting hundreds of shells that had remained at the former military base since the 1997 year of anarchy. Last year explosions at army weapon depots in southern Albania killed an army officer and injured four others. An estimated 550,000 weapons, 839 million rounds of ammunition and 16 million explosive devices were looted from Albanian army depots in 1997, when citizens enraged over losing their life savings in bogus pyramid investment schemes stormed army barracks. The government since has collected about 200,000 weapons and significant amounts of ordnance. Some 150,000 pieces of looted weaponry fell into militants hands in neighboring Kosova and Macedonia, while the remainder is believed to still be in people’s homes.