New tensions: deaths in fighting with armed combat troops in northern Kosovo

A heavily armed combat squad entered the Serb-inhabited north of Kosovo during the night. During gun battles, the attackers killed a Kosovo police officer and injured two others, the Interior Ministry in Pristina said.

The Kosovo police surrounded the approximately 30 intruders in the village of Banjska near the town of Mitrovica. According to Kosovo police, three attackers were killed in the fighting. The police arrested an attacker and several suspected helpers. The government in Pristina assumes that neighboring Serbia sent the irregular militiamen.

Separation with NATO help

It is the most serious incident in the tense relationship between Kosovo and Serbia in years. Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, seceded from Serbia with NATO help in 1999 after Serbian war crimes against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population and declared independence in 2008. More than 100 countries, including Germany, recognize Kosovo’s independence, while Serbia, Russia, China and five EU member states do not. Belgrade demands the return of its former province.

At a press conference in the capital Pristina, Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the events in Banjska as a Serbian-directed attack on the state of Kosovo. “There are at least 30 men, heavily armed, uniformed, professional military or police officers, who are surrounded by our police forces in Banjska,” he said. He called on the intruders to lay down their weapons and surrender.

The Kosovo government released images showing men with infantry combat weapons and bulletproof vests, as well as a jeep and an armored transport vehicle. The walls of the Serbian Orthodox monastery in Banjska, around which the invaders operated, can also be seen. The responsible diocese of Raska-Prizren confirmed that masked gunmen entered the monastery complex in vehicles. The monks living there and the guests present locked themselves inside the monastery building.

The course of the incident described by the Kosovo police suggests that they were professionally prepared and controlled. Apparently a Kosovo police patrol had been lured into an ambush early in the morning. The officers discovered two unmarked trucks on a bridge blocking access to Banjska. When more police arrived, the intruders opened fire on them.

Official Belgrade sought to shift blame for the escalation onto Kurti. “If anyone is responsible for any violence, it is him,” claimed Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic. Only Kurti has an interest in escalating the conflict, which he is allegedly fomenting with “terror” against the Serbs in Kosovo. Orlic did not discuss the identity of the attackers.

The EU and USA condemn aggression

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell strongly condemned the aggression. “The perpetrators responsible must be brought to justice,” he said in Brussels. The US ambassador to Pristina, Jeff Hovenier, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The US strongly condemns the orchestrated, violent attacks on the Kosovo police.” The Kosovo police have a “comprehensive and legitimate responsibility” to enforce law and order in the country.

Under the mediation of Borrell and the EU special representative Miroslav Lajcak, Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating for several months about normalizing their relationship. However, the talks have so far been unsuccessful. The EU recently blamed the Kosovar side for this because they do not want to agree to the formation of an association of Serbian communities demanded by the EU and Serbia. However, Pristina sees this as an attempt to lay the foundation for a later secession of the Serbian north.