Serbian troops on full alert after Kosovo police arrests

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia put its troops on full alert Tuesday after heavily armed Kosovo police entered Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, firing tear gas and arresting about two dozen people.

It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering tensions between Serbia and its former province, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008 after a bloody 1998-99 war that ended only with NATO intervention. Ninety percent of population in northern Kosovo are Serbs who don't want to be part of independent Kosovo. Action by Kosovo special police there is rare and always triggers Serb anger.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Kosovo police arrested 23 people, including Serbs, Bosnians and a Russian, after "bursting" into several northern villages and the town Mitrovica with armored vehicles. Vucic said he had seen video of the police firing "live ammunition" over the heads of unarmed Serbs, and said the operation was designed to intimidate minority Serbs in Kosovo, whose population is mostly ethnic Albanians.

Vucic said he has ordered soldiers near the border to be on "combat alert" to protect Serbs if tensions escalate.

"Serbia will try to preserve peace and stability, but will be fully ready to protect our people at the shortest notice," Vucic told parliament.

He later said that the Kosovo policemen were withdrawing.

The U.N. mission in Kosovo said those detained included two of its staff members, one of them Russian. It said both employees were hospitalized for injuries, and called for all parties to help restore calm and security.

Russia, a Serbian ally, called Kosovo's actions a "provocation" and demanded the immediate release of the Russian U.N. employee.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said earlier that the Russian "was camouflaged under a diplomatic veil to...