MITROVICA (Kosovo), May 28 — Kosovo police met “armed resistance” that left one officer wounded in the predominantly Serb north during an operation today targeting organised crime, police said.
The incidents occurred in North Mitrovica, which is the mainly ethnic Serb half of a city in northern Kosovo.
Since breaking away from Serbia in a 1998-99 war, Kosovo has struggled to exercise authority in ethnic Serb communities which remain loyal to Belgrade, which rejects its former province’s independence.
In the raid police detained “some police officers and some citizens” accused of offences including participating in criminal gangs, smuggling goods, abusing official positions and bribes, police said in a statement.
“As a result of the resistance in North Mitrovica a police officer has been injured but his life is not in danger”.
A Serb official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that there was also an exchange of gunfire in the northern ethnic Serb town of Zubin Potok.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj wrote on Facebook that a police operation was being “conducted throughout Kosovo, directed at individuals involved in smuggling, organised crime and other criminal offences.”
In Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered the army placed on alert, according to state television—a command he gives regularly during episodic bouts of tension with Kosovo.
The former war foes still have bitter relations 20 years after their war.
The neighbours are under pressure from Brussels to normalise ties if they want to advance towards possible EU membership.
But frequent diplomatic spats keep derailing talks and halting progress. — AFP
