About 600 British troops 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 spokesman announced on Sunday.
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“The UK will deploy around 200 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, who will take part in exercises alongside 400 other British troops already in Kosovo. Reinforcements from other alliance countries will follow,” said Dylan White, NATO spokesman.
The 200 new deployments, in addition to the 400 already in place for exercises, come from a reserve force being added later this week by the British Army to KFOR, the NATO-based force in Kosovo to deal with renewed tensions in Kosovo The region was made available.
KFOR, which has been present in the country since the 1998/99 war, remains the most important institution responsible for the country’s security with 4,500 soldiers from 27 countries.
“This decision follows the violent attack on the Kosovo police on September 24 and the growing tensions in the region,” he added, without specifically referring to American statements on Friday warning of a Serbian military operation on the border of the country Kosovo was warned.
NATO again called for calm on Sunday and demanded that Belgrade and Pristina return to the path of dialogue as quickly as possible, “the only path to lasting peace,” according to this spokesman.
A Kosovar Albanian police officer was killed Sunday in an ambush in northern Kosovo, where Serbs make up the majority in several towns. There was a shootout between special units of the Kosovo police and a heavily armed Serbian commando.
This is one of the most serious escalations that has occurred in Kosovo in recent years.
Serbia is refusing to recognize the independence of its former Albanian-majority southern province, a decade after a deadly war between Kosovo independence guerrillas and Serbian forces that ended after a NATO bombing raid.