By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI (Related Press)
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Dozens of Serb gunmen wearing fight uniforms killed a Kosovar Albanian police officer then stormed an Orthodox monastery in Kosovo close to its border with Serbia, setting off gunbattles that left three assailants lifeless and additional raised tensions between the 2 former wartime foes as they search to normalize ties.
Kosovo police surrounded Banjska, a village situated 55 kilometers (35 miles) north of Kosovo’s capital the place the monastery is situated, and the gunfire was persevering with, in keeping with Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Kosovo’s inside minister said later Sunday that the world was beneath management however he didn’t say if the gunmen had left.
The Kosovo Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church stated a temple of the monastery in Banjska was locked down after the gunmen stormed it. A bunch of pilgrims from Serbia was contained in the temple together with an abbot.
Kurti stated the assault was supported by Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke later Sunday in Belgrade to say the gunmen have been native Kosovo Serbs “who not wish to stand Kurti’s terror.”
Vucic condemned the killing of the Kosovo policeman, saying it “can’t be justified,” however nonetheless stated the conflict was the results of “brutal” stress on Kosovo Serbs by the Kosovo authorities. He denied that Belgrade had something to do with the assault.
Requested how come the Serb gunmen have been photographed sporting fight uniforms, Vucic stated anybody should buy such uniforms in extraordinary outlets and that those seen didn’t belong to the Serbian navy or police drive.
“The one offender for what occurred in Kosovo … is Albin Kurti,” stated Vucic, additionally blasting the West and its “hypocrisy” relating to Kosovo.
“You may kill us all. Serbia won’t ever acknowledge the independence of Kosovo, that monster creation that you simply made by bombing Serbia,” Vucic stated.
Serbia and its former province, Kosovo, have been at odds for many years. Their 1998-99 struggle left greater than 10,000 individuals lifeless, principally Kosovo Albanians. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 however Belgrade has refused to acknowledge the transfer.
Earlier this month, an EU-facilitated assembly in Brussels between Kurti and Vucic to normalize ties led to acrimony. The USA has supported the negotiations and the EU’s place in making an attempt to resolve the continued supply of stress within the Balkans.
On Sunday, the Kosovo diocese stated gunmen in an armored car stormed the monastery, breaking down the locked gate and capturing weapons. “Armed, masked males transfer across the courtyard and occasional gunshots are heard,” it stated.
Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Kurti stated “masked professionals armed with heavy weapons” launched the assault, opening fireplace on a police patrol at about 3 a.m. (01:00 GMT) in Banjska close to the monastery.
Inside Minister Xhelal Svecla stated they’d arrested 6 gunmen, 2 of whom have been injured, and located “an “terribly great amount of weaponry and ammunition, explosives.”
Three of the assailants have been killed. One police officer has been killed and two others injured, the final throughout the armed confrontation, apparently close to the monastery on the village, authorities stated.
At a information convention Kurti described the armed assailants as “an organized skilled unit who’ve come to battle in Kosovo,” calling on them handy themselves over to Kosovar authorities.
Police stated the state of affairs remained tense whereas “gunfire assaults in opposition to police items proceed with the identical depth from the transferring prison groupings.”
Kosovo police stated the assault started when three police items have been dispatched to a bridge on the entrance to the village that had been blocked by vans. The cops got here beneath fireplace from weapons that included hand grenades and bombs and one was killed. The armed males then stormed the monastery.
Kurti referred to as it a “unhappy day” for Kosovo, figuring out the lifeless police officer as Afrim Bunjaku.
Native roads and two borders crossings into Serbia have been closed. Most of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority lives in 4 municipalities round Mitrovica, within the north.
“It was an actual little struggle: first some gunfire, then silence, shootings, detonations,” Serbian information company Kossev quoted an unidentified resident as saying.
Kurti wrote on his Fb web page that “Organized crime, which is politically, financially and logistically supported from Belgrade, is attacking our state.”
The speaker of Serbia’s parliament, Vladimir Orlic, responded that Kurti “was fast accountable the Serbs” however really was the one who needed an “escalation.”
The European Union’s overseas coverage chief, Josep Borrell, condemned “the hideous assault by an armed gang in opposition to Kosovo cops” and stated “all details concerning the assault should be established. The accountable perpetrators should face justice.”
He added that the EU’s rule of regulation mission, or EULEX, had representatives on the bottom and in shut contact with authorities and the NATO-led worldwide peacekeeping drive in Kosovo.
Borrell talked by cellphone with Kurti and Vucic, reiterating “his name for the assailants to give up instantly and the discharge of the pilgrims at Banjska Monastery, for them to depart safely.”
Worldwide cops from the EU mission and a restricted variety of Kosovo police have been answerable for implementing the rule of regulation in northern Kosovo. Serbia has vehemently protested the presence of the Kosovo Police.
In February, the EU put ahead a 10-point plan to finish the newest spherical of heightened tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. Kurti and Vucic gave their approval on the time, however with some reservations which have nonetheless not been resolved.
The EU warned each nations that the commitments the leaders made in February “are binding on them and play a job within the European path of the events” — in different phrases, Serbia and Kosovo’s probabilities of becoming a member of the 27-nation bloc.
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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania; Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade.
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Observe Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini