PRISTINA – Kosovo police mentioned certainly one of their patrols near the Serbian border got here beneath fireplace on Saturday, in an space of the nation marred by ethnic disputes and smuggling actions.
Tensions between western Balkan neighbours Kosovo and Serbia
have flared just lately and got here to a head final week after Kosovo mentioned it could oblige Serbs residing within the north of the nation and utilizing Serbian automobile licence plates to use for plates issued by Pristina establishments. The duty has now been postponed.
Ethnic Serbs make up round 5 % of the Kosovan inhabitants, which is 90 % ethnic Albanian.
“There have been a minimum of 10 pictures… they hit near a police boat however nobody was injured,” police mentioned in an announcement.Police mentioned their patrol got here beneath fireplace near the city of Zubin Potok once they had been making an attempt to launch a ship on the Gazivoda lake, a part of the border. In an try and defuse tensions the leaders of each international locations, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, will meet in Brussels on Aug. 18. Round 50,000 Serbs dwell within the north of Kosovo however they don't acknowledge its 2008 declaration of independence. They preserve shut hyperlinks with Belgrade.Kosovo is acknowledged by greater than 100 international locations, primarily western, however not by Serbia, Russia, China and others.Kosovo’s fragile peace is maintained by NATO‘s KFOR mission, which has 3,770 troops on the bottom. For the time being NATO is barely monitoring the state of affairs nevertheless it has mentioned it's ready to intervene according to its mandate if stability was jeopardized.
(This story refiles to repair typo)
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