LONDON A highly secretive British SAS mission in Montenegro has spent the past six months training the Yugoslav republic's elite special police against terrorist threats from Serbia, according to the Sunday Times.
The 1,500-strong commando units of the new Montenegrin force, who wear distinctive black uniforms, are now a common sight near government buildings and on Montenegro's borders, the London newspaper said.
The commandos are backed up by another 5,000 special police.
Neither the Montenegrins nor the British government have admitted the presence of SAS trainers on Yugoslav territory, for fear of provoking a confrontation with the Yugoslav Army of President Slobodan Milosevic.
Diplomats were quoted as saying they believe the trainers, said to have been a squad of between four and eight, have now left after concern for their safety.
The SAS trainers were experienced Balkan hands. Several had assisted NATO's operation in Kosovo last year.
"I saw some familiar faces while I was wandering across a park here. They saw me and dived behind a tree," one diplomat told the paper.
Intelligence sources familiar with the police program run by the SAS said the trainers were based near bar, Yugoslavia's main port.
The police have been given new mountaineering, diving and parachuting skills, and some officers are also believed to have been given training in Britain.
(DPA)