Albania Police Comb Lazarat, Hunting Cop killer

Albanian police have continued combing the village of Lazarat, conducting house-to-house searches to find members of the armed group that on Wednesday killed 31-year-old special forces officer Ibrahim Basha in an ambush.

Since the operation started on Wednesday, police have detained dozens of suspects, mostly young man, for questioning by prosecutors.

A group from the Serious Crimes Prosecutor's office reconstructed the crime scene on Wednesday in the village.

Footage media showed that the gunmen  demolished a 100-metre-long wall at the ambush site in order to have a clearer sight of police forces from their fire holes.

 A spokesperson from the general prosecutor's office, Albi Serani, told BIRN that suspects for the murder could be named as early as this weekend.

"We are still waiting the crime scene analysis to determine the suspects and register criminal proceedings," he said.

Basha was laid to rest Thursday in Tirana in an official ceremony attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama, the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta, and members of his RENEA police special forces unit.

The officer was a veteran of the Albanian army special forces, twice deployed with NATO forces in Afghanistan, and had joined the RENEA unit one year ago.

An American soldier with whom Basha fought in Afghanistan, Brandon Holifield, paid homage to his fallen comrade though a Facebook post.

"Breaks my heart to know that after leaving the military and special forces community, he joins Albania's special ops police, and goes out fighting not on the Afghan war front, but a war back home amongst his own people," he wrote.

"Ibrahim, fly high brother. As we once used to joke, 'See you in Valhalla my friend,'" Holifield added.   

Lazarat is...