Yugoslav support to the Democratic Army of Greece (, "Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas", DSE) in the Greek Civil War indirectly fostered Albanian support for closer ties with Yugoslavia. The armed clashes there were reinforcing the Albanian perception that the Yugoslav and Albanian borders were being threatened by Greece. Furthermore, there was an US intelligence-gathering operation in the country, and an airdrop of twelve British Secret Intelligence Service-trained agents in 1947 Operation Valuable. The agents were deployed in central Albania to start an insurrection which did not materialise. The Yugoslavs hoped this perception would lead to increased Albanian support for integration with Yugoslavia. Soviet envoys to Albania deemed the effort successful in instilling Albanians with a fear of Greeks along with a perception that Albania could not defend itself on its own. At the same time, Soviet sources indicated there was no actual threat of a Greek invasion of Albania. Tito thought there was another potential benefit from his support to the DSE. Many DSE fighters were Macedonian Slavs leading Tito to believe that cooperating with the DSE might allow Yugoslavia to annex Greek territory by expanding into Aegean Macedonia even if the DSE failed to seize power.