2023-09-29 22:23:00
Faced with the attack carried out in northern Kosovo on Sunday September 24, NATO announced this Friday its desire to strengthen the strength of KFOR, the force currently deployed in this former province of northern Serbia.
“Yesterday (Thursday), the North Atlantic Council (NATO political decision-making body) authorized additional forces to deal with the situation,” Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement on Friday. press release. ALSO READ A police officer killed, a monastery stormed… story of a chaotic day in Kosovo
The text does not specify what type of forces could be deployed if necessary, but the British Ministry of Defense indicated for its part that a battalion, approximately 500 to 650 men, had been made available to Kfor, in the event of of necessity in Kosovo.
This battalion, the 1st Battalion of the Royal Princess of Wales Regiment, recently arrived in the region for long-planned exercises, adds the British ministry. “We will always take all necessary measures to maintain a safe and secure environment as well as freedom of movement for all people living in Kosovo,” Mr. Stoltenberg recalled in this press release.
Washington warns of military deployment at the border
A Kosovar Albanian police officer was killed Sunday in an ambush in northern Kosovo, where Serbs are the majority in several towns. A shootout ensued, between Kosovar police special forces and a heavily armed Serbian commando. This is one of the most serious escalations to have occurred in Kosovo in recent years.
The United States, for its part, warned on Friday of a major Serbian military deployment on the border with Kosovo, and called on Belgrade to withdraw its troops. Serbia refuses to recognize the independence that its former southern province, with an Albanian majority, proclaimed in 2008 a decade after a deadly war between Kosovar independence guerrillas and Serbian forces.
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