Kosovo Serbs Attack U.N., NATO Forces

BERLIN — Kosovo suffered its worst day of violence yesterday since declaring independence a month ago. Ethnic Serbs in the north of the new country attacked NATO and U.N. forces with grenades and automatic weapons.

Dozens of U.N. police and NATO troops, mostly from Poland and France, were injured after coming under fire in the town of Mitrovica. Explosives were detonated and U.N. vehicles set ablaze in the fighting, which left more than 80 civilians injured and 30 troops in need of treatment in NATO military hospitals.

Following the confrontation, U.N. police were ordered to withdraw from the Serb-dominated northern half of Mitrovica, with the grip of Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian government on Serb areas of the country growing ever weaker.

"After attacks with explosive devices suspected to be hand grenades, and firearms, the police are ordered to withdraw from the north of Mitrovica," a U.N. police statement said.

NATO insisted that it would respond "firmly" to any further violence. British defence sources confirmed that Britain's emergency reserve force was at "high readiness" to deploy to Kosovo if the security situation deteriorated.