Kosovo police officer killed and another wounded in attack in the north, raising tensions with Serbi

(24 Sep 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Banjska - 24 September 2023
1. Police vehicle on side of road near scene of attack
2. Police officer, sign for Banjska Monastery, with Serbian flag above
3. Various of police vehicles driving past
4. Various of police and vehicles near scene
STORYLINE:
Kosovo’s prime minister on Sunday said one police officer was killed and another wounded in an attack he blamed on support from neighbouring Serbia.

Albin Kurti said “masked professionals armed with heavy weapons” opened fire on a police patrol in the village of Banjska, 55 kilometres (35 miles) north of the capital Pristina at 3 a.m. (01:00 GMT), killing one officer.

Another officer was injured but his condition is not life-threatening.

Kosovo police said two trucks with no license plates had blocked a bridge at the entrance of the village.

Three police units were sent to unblock it but came under fire from different positions with different weapons, hand grenades and bombs.

Police managed to push back the attack and take two injured police officers at the hospital in southern Mitrovica.

One of them was dead on arrival, doctors said.

The area around Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo, is where most of the country’s ethnic Serb minority lives, in four municipalities.

Reports in the media in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo said residents of the village of Banjska were waken up by shootings and detonations in the middle of the night until dawn.

Serbian media said both local roads and crossings with Serbia were blocked.

The attacks have increased tensions between the two former war foes at a delicate moment in their European Union-facilitated dialogue to normalise ties.

Earlier this month, an EU-facilitated dialogue meeting in Brussels between Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ended in acrimony.

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