{"id":426395,"date":"2024-12-01T12:31:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T12:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426395"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Kosovo-arrests-blast-suspects-Serbia-denies-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Kosovo-arrests-blast-suspects-Serbia-denies-involvement\/","title":{"rendered":"Kosovo arrests blast suspects, Serbia denies involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kosovo arrested several suspects on Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, while neighbouring Serbia rejected accusations of staging the blast.<\/p>\n

The explosion on Friday near the town of Zubin Potok, which sits in an ethnic Serb-dominated area in Kosovo’s troubled north, damaged a canal that supplies water to hundreds of thousands of people and cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo’s electricity.<\/p>\n

As security forces swarmed the area around the canal, whose concrete walls were left with a gaping hole gushing water, Prime Minister Albin Kurti visited the site and announced that authorities had arrested several people.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement “carried out searches” and “collected testimony and evidence, and the criminals and terrorists will have to face justice and the law”, he said.<\/p>\n

Calling it “the most serious attack on critical infrastructure in Kosovo since the end of the war”, Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla told the press that police had detained eight suspects.<\/p>\n

Police chief Gazmend Hoxha said that his office had seized “200 military uniforms, six grenade launchers, two rifles, a pistol, masks, knives” in the operation.<\/p>\n

“This is not a trivial attack, it was an act prepared by professional terrorist organisations,” Svecla added.<\/p>\n

The arrests follow a security meeting late on Friday, when Kurti pointed the finger at Serbia.<\/p>\n

“The attack was carried out by professionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia,” he told a press conference, without providing evidence.<\/p>\n

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic hit back on Saturday, denying the “irresponsible” and “baseless accusations”.<\/p>\n

“Such unfounded claims are aimed to tarnish Serbia’s reputation, as well as to undermine efforts to promote peace and stability in the region,” he said in a statement to AFP.<\/p>\n

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric had earlier suggested on X that the Kosovar “regime” could itself be behind the blast, calling for an international investigation.<\/p>\n

The main political party representing Serbs in Kosovo, Serb List, also condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”.<\/p>\n

AFP journalists at the scene saw water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital, Pristina.<\/p>\n

However, electricity supplies to consumers were running smoothly on Saturday morning, with authorities having found an alternative method to cool the plants, said Kosovo’s Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.<\/p>\n

Repair work was ongoing, authorities said, while Kurti confirmed workers had managed to restore water flows to 25 percent capacity.<\/p>\n

– Fears of ‘escalation’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The European Union denounced the explosion as a “terrorist attack”.<\/p>\n

“It is a despicable act of sabotage on Kosovo’s critical civilian infrastructure, which provides drinking water for (a) considerable part of Kosovo’s population and is a vital component of Kosovo’s energy system,” the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The United States, France and Turkey joined the international condemnation of the attack.<\/p>\n

“We call on all parties to exercise restraint to avoid escalation in the region,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n

The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission for Kosovo likewise called for restraint.<\/p>\n

“It is important that facts are established and that those responsible are held accountable and brought to justice,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The force is providing security in the surrounding area and has offered logistical, explosives removal and engineering support to the Kosovo authorities, it added.<\/p>\n

Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge.<\/p>\n

Kurti’s government has for months sought to dismantle a parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Belgrade to serve Kosovo’s Serbs.<\/p>\n

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Saturday denounced “the act of sabotage on the critical water supply infrastructure in the Iber-Lepenc Canal” in comments on X, calling it “a serious crime that endangers the lives of Kosovo’s citizens and undermines the process of normalising relations in our region”.<\/p>\n

Friday’s attack came after a series of violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including the hurling of hand grenades at a municipal building and a police station earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Kosovo is due to hold parliamentary elections on February 9.<\/p>\n

ih\/ach\/giv\/jhb\/sbk\/bc<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti visited the site of the blast, which he blamed on ‘gangs directed by Serbia’<\/p>\n

-Armend NIMANI
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Friday’s attack came after a series of violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including the hurling of hand grenades at a municipal building and a police station earlier this week<\/p>\n

-Armend NIMANI
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

AFP journalists at the scene saw water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital<\/p>\n

-Armend NIMANI
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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