By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - The UK said Sunday that it will send around 200 soldiers to Kosovo amid growing tensions in the northern part of the country, near the border with Serbia.
At the request of NATO, the forces will be sent to Kosovo for a NATO peacekeeping mission following clashes in the country's north, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Around 200 soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment will join the 400-strong British contingent already in country as part of an annual exercise, it added.
"The extension of our support to the Kosovo Force (KFOR) underlines our unwavering commitment to NATO and the security of the Western Balkans region," said Adm. Tony Radakin, chief of the Defence Staff.
Last Sunday in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo – a region near the Serbian border, with a large ethnic Serb population – a gunfight left a police officer dead and another injured.
The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, followed by protests against the election of ethnic Albanian mayors.
The last week has seen a “large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo" according to the US National Security Council, whose spokesman called the deployment “a very destabilizing development.”
Kosovo on Saturday called on Serbia to pull back its troops, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote Friday on X: “NATO Allies met today & expressed deep concern about tensions in northern Kosovo.”
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, followed by a Serb minority, with about half living in the country's north.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and gained recognition from many countries, including Türkiye. But Belgrade has never recognized Kosovo and claims that its territory is still part of Serbia.
*Talha Ozturk contributed to this report in Belgrade