Three KFOR peacekeeping soldiers were slightly hurt in the divided Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica today, as they separated rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the aftermath of a deadly grenade attack.
Major Antoine Bourret, spokesman of the French-led force in the town, said the incidents occurred as the troops occupied a bridge to keep Albanian protesters from attacking Serbs on the other side of the River Ibar.
Tension has been running high in the town since a grenade attack that killed a 17-year-old Kosovo Albanian youth and injured five other people on Sunday.
Today's incidents occurred as the funeral of the dead Albanian youth was taking place.
The French spokesman said some 1,000 ethnic Albanians gathered on the south side of the bridge and started hurling petrol bombs and stones at the KFOR troops, who reacted by firing tear gas.
"Some 200 Serbs gathered on the north side", he said.
Tension rose even higher when a rumour -- later revealed to be untrue -- ran through the ethnic Albanian population according to which one of the people injured in Sunday's attack had died.
After the stand-off at the bridge, an Albanian crowd attacked a building housing the French peacekeepers in the town, burning two light armoured cars and an all-terrain vehicle.
Because of the extreme tension the peacekeeping forces extended an overnight curfew in Mitrovica, for an indefinite period.
Instead of beginning at midnight the curfew was to start at 10 pm, and to run until 6 am instead of 5 am previously.
Sunday's grenade attack took place just a day after Serbs and ethnic Albanians had clashed in the area, and immediately sparked a protest by some 350 Kosovo Albanians. They blocked traffic and threw stones at UN police vehicles.
Later Monday, some 300 angry ethnic Albanians surrounded a car filled with Serbian and Bosnian employees of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), blocking it from entering Mitrovica.
One of the workers was seriously injured when he was pulled from the car and beaten by the angry mob.
The town is the scene of regular clashes between the two communities.
AFP