Eight police officers and 14 members of an armed group have been killed after a day-long gun battle in Macedonia.<br /><br /> The interior ministry said the 44 member group, who are all citizens of Kosovo, entered the country about a week earlier with the aim of launching attacks on state institutions.<br /><br /> Interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said 37 police officers were also reported wounded in the battle.<br /><br /> He added that “One of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the Balkans has been neutralised.”<br /><br /> The fighting took place in the ethnically Albanian suburb of Kumanovo to the north of the capital Skopje.<br /><br /> Macedonia is grappling with its deepest political crisis since gaining independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991.<br /><br /> Some people believe the government and opposition are willing to provoke ethic clashes in a bid to deliberately destabilise the country and leverage power.<br /><br /> Kumanovo was the centre of hostilities between Albanian rebels and government forces in 2001.<br /><br /> That conflict, in
