1 Kosovo police officer killed and 1 wounded in an assault within the north, elevating tensions with Serbia

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s prime minister on Sunday stated one police officer was killed and one other wounded in an assault he blamed on help from neighboring Serbia, rising tensions between the 2 former struggle foes at a fragile second of their European Union-facilitated dialogue to normalize ties.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti stated “masked professionals armed with heavy weapons” opened hearth on a police patrol within the village of Banjska, in Leposavic municipality, 55 kilometers (35 miles) north of the capital Pristina at 3 a.m. (01:00 GMT).

Kosovo police stated two vehicles with out license plates blocked a bridge on the entrance to the village. Three police models had been despatched to unblock it however got here beneath hearth from completely different positions with varied weapons, together with hand grenades and bombs.

Police managed to push again the assault and take two injured law enforcement officials on the hospital in southern Mitrovica.

Considered one of them was lifeless on arrival, medical doctors stated. The situation of the opposite is just not life-threatening.

Talking after a gathering of the nation’s Safety Council Sunday, Kurti stated it was a “unhappy day” for Kosovo and named the lifeless police officer as Afrim Bunjaku.

The prime minister displayed a set of photographs which confirmed plenty of four-wheel drive automobiles with out license plates and an armored personnel provider “which doesn’t belong to the Kosovo police,” close to the Orthodox monastery in Banjska.

There was ongoing gunfire from what he described as a bunch of at the least 30 navy professionals, masked and closely armed.

“It’s clear that these uniformed individuals, at the least 30, are an organized skilled unit who’ve come to combat in Kosovo,” he stated, calling on them handy themselves over to the Kosovar authorities.

Most of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority lives in 4 municipalities round Mitrovica, within the north.

Stories in Kosovo Serb media stated residents of Banjska had been woken by shootings and explosions within the evening.

“It was an actual little struggle: first some gunfire, then silence, shootings, detonations,” Serbian Kossev information company quoted an unidentified resident as saying.

Serbian media stated each native roads and crossings with Serbia had been blocked.

“Organized crime, which is politically, financially and logistically supported from Belgrade, is attacking our state,” Kurti wrote on his Fb web page.

Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani, who’s in New York on the United Nations Common Meeting, denounced the killing.

“Such assaults testify as soon as once more to the destabilizing energy of the legal bands organized from Serbia which for a very long time … are destabilizing Kosovo and the area,” she stated.

In an announcement, the U.S. ambassador in Pristina “strongly condemns the orchestrated, violent assaults on the Kosovo Police this morning,” including that “the Kosovo Police has full and bonafide duty for imposing the rule of regulation in keeping with the structure and legal guidelines of Kosovo.”

Serbia’s parliamentary speaker Vladimir Orlic stated Kurti “was fast in charge the Serbs,” including that Kurti was the one who wished an “escalation.”

“He (Kurti) stated it was some type of organized motion by professionals,” Orlic instructed native Prva tv station. “They will need to have been recognized and he is aware of who they’re and what they’re, and all the things is evident.”

Earlier this month, an EU-facilitated dialogue assembly in Brussels between Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic led to acrimony. Washington has totally supported the negotiations and the stance of the EU.

In February, the EU put ahead a 10-point plan to finish months of political crises. Kurti and Vucic gave their approval on the time, however with some reservations which have nonetheless not been resolved.

The EU warned each international locations that the commitments that Serbia and Kosovo made in February “are binding on them and play a task within the European path of the events,” which refers to their probabilities of becoming a member of the 27-nation bloc.

In Could tensions in northern Kosovo left 93 peacekeepers harm in riots.

A selected flashpoint has been the creation of the Affiliation of the Serb-Majority Municipalities, or ASM, which is to coordinate the work of Serb-dominated municipalities on issues resembling schooling, well being and financial growth.

Kosovo considers the ASM as an effort by Belgrade to create a Serb mini-state with broad autonomy, just like Republika Srpska in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The ASM’s institution was first agreed in Brussels in 2013, and authorized within the Kosovo parliament. However Kosovo’s Constitutional Courtroom later deemed it unconstitutional, as a result of it wasn’t inclusive of different ethnicities and will entail govt powers.

In protest, final 12 months Serb lawmakers, prosecutors and law enforcement officials walked off the job. Their posts have nonetheless not been crammed. A number of Serb law enforcement officials had been recruited however obtained threats telling them to resign.

Northern Kosovo’s rule of regulation has been run by worldwide law enforcement officials from the EU mission, EULEX, and a restricted variety of Kosovo police, whose presence has been vehemently protested by Belgrade.

The border is guarded by peacekeepers from the 4,000-strong NATO-led KFOR drive, which has been in Kosovo since 1999.

Serbia and its former province, Kosovo, have been at odds for many years. Their 1998-99 struggle left greater than 10,000 folks lifeless, principally Kosovo Albanians. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 however Belgrade has refused to acknowledge the transfer.

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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania; Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade.

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Observe Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini