25 injured as violent clashes erupt in between Serb protesters and Nato forces

The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted - a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of creating tensions. He called on Serbs in Kosovo to avoid clashes with Nato soldiers.

"I am urging the Serbs in Kosovo - and I know how they feel and how difficult it is for them - not to get into a conflict with Nato. Not because I am afraid or because any of us are afraid, none of us personally have anything to lose, but because that's what Kurti wants most," he told reporters after further clashes in the region.

In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police - staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year - sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building, witnesses said.

Serb protesters in Zvecan clashed with police, threw tear gas and stun grenades at Nato soldiers and spray-painted Nato vehicles with the letter "Z", referring to a Russian sign used in the war in Ukraine.

In Leposavic, close to the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in riot gear placed barbed wire around the town hall to protect it from hundreds of angry Serbs.

KFOR, the Nato-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence in a statement, saying several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were "subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices."

Vucic said that 52 Serbs were injured, three of them seriously.

Vucic, who is the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces, raised the army's combat readiness to the highest level, Defence Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters.

Vucevic said that this implied that additional instructions for the deployment of the army's units in specific, designated positions had been issued, but did not elaborate.

Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo's north, have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.

Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic of destabilising Kosovo.

"Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeeping) officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic's orders to destabilise the north of Kosovo must face justice," Osmani tweeted.

Serbs refused to take part in local elections in April and ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoralties in four Serb-majority municipalities - including North Mitrovica, where no incidents were reported on Monday - with a 3.5% turnout.

Serbs demand that the Kosovo government remove ethnic Albanian mayors from town halls and allow local administrations financed by Belgrade to resume their work.

On Friday, three out of the four ethnic Albanian mayors were escorted into their offices by police, who were pelted with rocks and responded with tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.

The United States and its allies, which have strongly backed Kosovo's independence, rebuked Pristina on Friday, saying imposing mayors in Serb-majority areas without popular support undercut efforts to normalise relations.

Kurti defended Pristina's position, tweeting after a weekend phone call with the European Union's foreign policy chief: "Emphasized that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens."

Reuters