Kosovo police said they killed three armed attackers and arrested another Sunday during a shootout in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo. <\/p>\n
The standoff between police and 30 armed men began just hours after an ambush incident left one police officer dead and another injured. Some of the shooting is taking place near a monastery in the village, police said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThree gunmen have been killed, two gunmen and four suspects have been arrested, the latter were found in illegal possession of radio communications, and who are suspected of being related to a terrorist group,\u201d said Kosovo police in a Facebook post. <\/p>\n
According to the police, the \u201csecurity situation continues to be tense\u201d although \u201cthe intensity of attacks on police officers has decreased.\u201d <\/p>\n
Authorities previously said they found \u201clogistical equipment, suspected military vehicles, military uniforms as well as weapons and ammunition of different calibers\u201d at a residential location being used by the attackers. <\/p>\n
\u201cKosovo Police continues to call on criminal groups to surrender to the justice authorities and at the same time invites citizens to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies, in the interest of calming the situation and general security,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n
The incident is a serious escalation in a region already prone to unrest. Kosovo is majority Albanian, but like other villages in the north, Banjska is predominantly Serbian. <\/p>\n
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Serbia sees Kosovo as a breakaway state. Kosovo\u2019s Serbs view themselves as part of Serbia, and see Belgrade as their capital, rather than Pristina. <\/p>\n
Overnight Saturday into Sunday, a border police unit noticed two heavy trucks without license plates blocking the entrance to a bridge in Banjska, according to N1. Police units were deployed to the area. <\/p>\n
When police officers arrived at the scene, they encountered resistance, shots were fired, and during the exchange of fire one police officer was killed and another was injured, according to N1. Kosovo police said they were shot at with \u201can arsenal of firearms,\u201d including hand grenades and stun guns. <\/p>\n
In a post on Facebook Sunday morning, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the shooting in the village of Banjska as a \u201cterror attack\u201d conducted by what he said were \u201cSerbian criminal gangs.\u201d <\/p>\n
Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 denied his country\u2019s involvement in the clash. He said the men killed were Serbs from Kosovo. <\/p>\n
The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), which oversees the Banjska monastery, issued a statement saying calm has returned to the monastery and that police are now in control of the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ra\u0161ka-Prizren Diocese (SOC) informs the public that the situation at the Banjska monastery is presently stable,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cThe armed individuals who breached the gate earlier today have left the premises, and there is now a presence of Kosovo police and EULEX at the entrance and within the monastery\u2019s courtyard.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a statement Sunday, EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the attack and called for a de-escalation of the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI condemn in the strongest possible terms the hideous attack by an armed gang against Kosovo Police officers in Banjska\/Banjsk\u00eb in the north of Kosovo, which left one police officer dead,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cThe responsible perpetrators must face justice.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMore innocent lives are at risk in ongoing hostilities in the surroundings of Banjska Monastery. These attacks must stop immediately,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, \u201cis on the ground and in close contact with the authorities and KFOR,\u201d the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Borrell said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU and its Member States repeatedly urge all actors to work to de-escalate the situation in north of Kosovo,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have escalated in recent months with violent protests erupting in May over controversial local elections. Dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured in the clashes at the time. <\/p>\n
Kosovo\u2019s Serbs have increasingly demanded greater autonomy from the ethnic Albanian majority. <\/p>\n\n
Kosovo police said they killed three armed attackers and arrested another Sunday during a shootout in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo. The standoff between police and 30 armed men began just hours after an ambush incident left one police officer dead and another injured. Some of the shooting is taking place near a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}