British troops fired plastic bullets and drove tanks through the streets of the Kosovo town of Mitrovica today to scatter hundreds of ethnic Albanians hurling rocks and petrol bombs.
The clashes were the latest in three days of confrontations between ethnic Albanians and the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Mitrovica, where clashes have flared repeatedly since Kosovo came under international control in 1999.
Kosovo's UN governor held a crisis meeting today in the ethnically divided town with leaders of the province's Albanian majority. The administration condemned the violence and said they worried international civilians could be targeted next.
Ethnic Albanians, who have repeatedly accused the French of failing to protect Albanians in the Serb-dominated north of Mitrovica, began targeting KFOR after a 15-year-old Albanian boy was killed there on Monday.
An Albanian doctor said 26 people were slightly wounded in fighting that appeared to have subsided by early evening. A Reuters photographer also suffered burns and hearing loss from a stun grenade.
French and British officers had no word of any casualties in their ranks today. More than 20 KFOR soldiers were wounded, one seriously, yesterday.
AFP