British troopers have arrived as reinforcements for the KFOR peacekeeping mission
Some 200 British troopers landed in Kosovo on Friday to bolster the NATO contingent within the breakaway Serbian province, following final month’s incident involving ethnic Albanian police. A Turkish basic will assume command of the pressure subsequent week.
Members of the first Battalion of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment joined the 400 UK troops already in Kosovo. Earlier this week, the Romanian authorities pledged to ship 100 extra troops as effectively.
These deployments “are a prudent step to make sure KFOR has the forces it wants to satisfy its UN mandate to take care of a secure and safe atmosphere and freedom of motion for all folks in Kosovo,” the US-led bloc mentioned in a press release.
NATO despatched troops into Kosovo in June 1999, after waging a 78-day air struggle in opposition to Serbia on behalf of ethnic Albanian separatists within the province. The provisional authorities in Pristina declared independence in 2008, however has not been acknowledged by Serbia or about half the world’s international locations, together with Russia, China and India.
Leaders of each Albania and Serbia known as on KFOR final week to take over policing duties within the Serb-majority areas within the north of the province. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned this was preferable to having police loyal to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whom he accused of “terrorizing” the native Serbs. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama argued this was the one solution to cease Serbian militants from attacking the ethnic Albanian police.
London and Bucharest pledged reinforcements after the September 24 incident in Banjska, when three Serbs and one ethnic Albanian police officer misplaced their lives. Kurti claimed that Belgrade was behind the “terrorist assault” on Kosovo. Vucic denied this, arguing that the native Serbs might have taken up arms in response to Pristina’s repression, which he accused KFOR of tolerating.
KFOR’s present commander, Italian Basic Angelo Michele Ristuccia, informed Albanian media on Friday that the presence of NATO troops “stopped the occasions from escalating” in Banjska. He is because of hand over command to Turkish Basic Ozkan Ulutas on October 10.
Türkiye has about 600 troops as a part of KFOR’s 4,500-strong contingent. Whereas Ankara has constructed good financial relations with Belgrade, it has additionally equipped Pristina with Bayraktar fight drones.
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