Kosovo's guerrillas have gone on to the offensive, attacking two large Serb-held towns as Serbian units struggle under the weight of NATO bombing, according to a rare interview with their leader.
Details of the military situation were given to The Irish Times by the head of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Mr Hashim Thaci, speaking this weekend via a satellite telephone link from a location inside Kosovo.
Mr Thaci, who led the ethnic Albanian delegation in February's failed peace talks in Rambouillet, France, said his battered units are now flexing their muscles.
Two major towns, Djakovica in the west and Mitrovica in the north-east, have been hit by the KLA who have fought confused battles with Serbian army and police forces on the outskirts. Both towns were last month emptied of their Albanian populations by Serb paramilitary units.
"The NATO air strikes are doing their job. The NATO air strikes have helped to save people," he said. "The morale among the Serbian fighters and police and army is very low. Their soldiers, their technology, their equipment have been weakened. Considering all of this, I think that NATO with ground troops would have minimal losses."
His statements will be music to the ears of NATO's top brass, anxiously hoping that a bombing campaign approaching its 50th day is having some effect.
In the past five weeks KLA units have withdrawn into the hills as Serbian forces deported the bulk of Kosovo's population. But Mr Thaci said they are now emerging to do battle.
The 28-year-old Mr Thaci joined the KLA last year after leading student protests against Serbian rule.
He gained a reputation as a competent soldier, but it was his political acumen that saw him nicknamed The Snake and led him to be promoted leader of the KLA this year.
Despite not speaking English, he endeared himself to Western diplomats at the Paris peace talks in Rambouillet which preceded the NATO air strikes.
At the talks, he emerged as prime minister of a provisional Kosovo government.
Mr Thaci's comments come with NATO jets flying several hundred missions against Serb targets in Kosovo.
Alliance fighter-bombers are daily skimming low over the mountains on the border between Albania and Kosovo to drop cluster bombs on Serbian positions west of the town of Decani. The KLA is taking advantage, with forces attacking into Kosovo from neighbouring Albania near Decani and hoping to link up with rebels inside the province.
In the north, a KLA commander interviewed by satellite phone said Serbian forces, having pushed his men from the key Shalja mountain, which commands two roads to Belgrade, have suddenly pulled back, apparently to shorten their lines.
Mr Thaci said the KLA was handicapped by the number of refugees living with them. "The KLA is fighting two struggles. One is defending its positions, and the other is looking after the civilians. Yesterday we were talking about a possible humanitarian disaster. Today it is happening. The situation is more difficult every day."
Western diplomats worry that the KLA intends to establish a military dictatorship, something Mr Thaci denied, saying he supported internationally supervised elections. But he added that Rambouillet, which called for autonomy for the province within Yugoslavia, was now impossible, with independence the only option.
"After this tragedy that happened in Kosovo, we estimate the political status of Kosovo should be advanced. Rambouillet was only a step," he said.
He also softened his line towards his arch-rival for the Albanian vote, Mr Ibrahim Rugova, a pacifist who was recently released from custody by Serbia where, apparently under duress, he urged compromise with the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic.
"I'm happy that he is all right," said Mr Thaci, "but he also damaged his own political and national credibility."
NATO yesterday confirmed that the KLA was providing pockets of sanctuary for ethnic Albanian refugees.