The incident comes as tensions ramp up between Kosovo and neighbouring Serbia, which doesn’t recognise the independence of its former province.
A police officer has been killed and one other injured in northern Kosovo as tensions proceed to rise within the area.
The incident occurred early on Sunday and authorities within the capital Pristina condemned the assault as a “terrorist” act and accused “organised crime supported by officers in Belgrade”.
The 2 policemen had been patrolling close to a street reported as blocked when “the police unit was attacked from completely different positions with heavy weapons, together with grenades,” in response to a police assertion.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, instantly castigated the assault, saying it was “carried out by professionals, masked and outfitted with heavy weapons. We condemn this legal and terrorist assault”, he wrote on social media.
“Organised crime, with monetary and logistical help from Belgrade officers, is attacking our nation,” Kurti added.
President Vjosa Osmani agreed, saying: “It’s an assault on Kosovo. These assaults show, if it was nonetheless essential, the destabilising energy of legal gangs, organised by Serbia, who’ve been destabilising Kosovo and the area for a very long time”.
She went on to name on the nation’s allies to assist help the nation “in its efforts to ascertain peace and order and protect sovereignty over your entire Republic of Kosovo”.
Serbia, supported particularly by Russian and Chinese language allies, refuses to recognise the independence of its former province.
Kosovo has a inhabitants of 1.8 million inhabitants who, though overwhelmingly of Albanian origin, features a Serbian neighborhood of round 120,000 individuals.
Since a 1999 battle which left 13,000, largely Kosovar Albanians, lifeless, relations between the 2 former enemies have been getting worse and worse.
Northern Kosovo, which is house to a lot of the nation’s Serbian neighborhood, is the scene of recurring unrest.
Rigidity there ramped up in Could after Kosovar authorities selected to nominate Albanian mayors in 4 municipalities with a Serbian majority.
ADVERTISEMENTThat call triggered one of many worst episodes within the historical past of tensions within the north of the nation in years, with protests, the arrest of three Kosovar law enforcement officials by Serbia and a violent riot by Serbian demonstrators which noticed greater than 30 injured individuals amongst NATO peacekeeping forces.
The worldwide neighborhood has urged each events to de-escalate the battle on a number of events, stressing that the potential accession of Belgrade and Kosovo to the European Union could possibly be jeopardised by this renewed violence.
Ten days in the past, although, discussions between Albin Kurti and the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, failed after just some hours.
In a speech to the United Nations Common Meeting final week, Vucic accused the West of hypocrisy, arguing that recognition of Kosovo was based mostly on the identical arguments Russia used to invade Ukraine.