Nato boosts presence in Kosovo with 600 UK troops as tensions with Serbia rise
- Nato deployment comes in response to a deadly clash between armed Serbians and Kosovo police
- Serbia’s president denies troop build-up near Kosovo, alleges ‘campaign of lies’ in wake of clashes
Some 600 British soldiers are to be deployed in Kosovo to reinforce Nato’s presence in the former province of Serbia which was last week rocked by armed clashes, the alliance said.
They are from a reserve force made available at the weekend to KFOR, the force deployed by Nato in Kosovo, to deal with the situation and the resurgence of tension in the region.
“The UK is deploying around 200 soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment to join a 400-strong UK contingent already exercising in Kosovo, and further reinforcements will follow from other Allies,” Nato spokesman Dylan White said on Sunday.
“The decision follows the violent attack on Kosovo Police on 24 September, and increased tensions in the region,” he added, without explicitly referring to Washington’s statement on Friday warning of a Serbian military build-up on Kosovo’s border.
Serbia’s president denied reports of a military build-up along the border with Kosovo, complaining of a “campaign of lies” against his country.
Kosovo’s government said Saturday it was monitoring the movements of the Serbian military from “three different directions”. It urged Serbia to immediately pull back its troops and demilitarise the border area.
