Soldiers of the Royal Irish Platoon yesterday rescued a teenage girl kidnapped on a Pristina housing estate.
Two men forced their way into a flat in the south of the city on Wednesday night, grabbed the 14-year-old Albanian girl by the throat and dragged her out into the street, a military spokesman said. The girl's older sister tried to intervene but was punched in the face. The sister then ran for help to a nearby flat where a Royal Irish Regiment platoon was stationed.
Cpl David Park (29) from Belfast, along with his Quick Reaction Force colleagues - Rangers Gareth Coults (19) from Belfast, David Leonard (19) from Liverpool and Malcolm Stewart (18) from Lisburn - rescued the girl from a nearby cafe where she had had been taken and arrested the two men.
The older girl later told military police that she had previously given a witness statement when she saw an Albanian family being beaten up in her block of flats.
The Royal Irish Regiment have now given the two girls extra protection.
Meanwhile British troops and ethnic Albanians clashed yesterday in the village of Gornja Brinjica, north of Pristina, Kfor peacekeepers and local residents said.
The incident happened when ethnic Albanians launched a smallarms attack on the village, prompting two British patrols in the Kfor peacekeeping force to open fire. They shot and wounded some of the attackers and took others prisoner, the source said.
The ultra-nationalist Serb Radical Party has joined the Yugoslav federal government, Tanjug news agency quoted the Prime Minister, Mr Momir Bulatovic, as saying yesterday. Analysts said the move reinforced the regime of the Yugoslav President, Mr Milosevic, in the face of mounting opposition.