2023-10-01 20:15:05
Some 600 British soldiers will be deployed to Kosovo to strengthen NATO’s presence in this former Serbian province, where a heavily armed attack took place on September 24, an Alliance spokesperson announced on Sunday.
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“The UK will deploy around 200 soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, who will join 400 other British soldiers already in Kosovo for exercises. Reinforcements will follow from other Alliance countries,” said Dylan White, NATO spokesperson.
The 200 new deployments, in addition to the 400 already present for exercises, come from a reserve force made available at the end of the week to KFOR, the force deployed by NATO in Kosovo, by the British army for deal with the renewed tension in the region.
KFOR, present in the country since the 1998-99 war, remains the main institution responsible for the country’s security, with 4,500 soldiers from 27 countries.
“This decision follows the violent attack once morest the Kosovo police on September 24 and the growing tensions in the region,” he added, without explicitly referring to American statements on Friday, warning of a Serbian military deployment to the border of Kosovo.
NATO once more called for calm on Sunday and demanded that Belgrade and Pristina return to the path of dialogue as quickly as possible, “the only way to achieve lasting peace”, according to this spokesperson.
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.
Serbia refuses to recognize the independence of its former southern province, with an Albanian majority, a decade following a deadly war between Kosovar independence guerrillas and Serbian forces, which ended following a NATO bombing campaign.
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