Albanians have repeatedly clashed with French forces in Mitrovica since Kosovo came under international control at the end of NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to halt Serb repression of the province's ethnic Albanian majority. They accuse the French of failing to protect the small Albanian community in the north of the ethnically divided town. A local Albanian doctor said 26 people had been slightly wounded in the latest clashes. A Reuters photographer suffered burns and hearing damage from a stun grenade. French and British officers had no word of any casualties in their ranks on Thursday but more than 20 KFOR soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, on Wednesday.
KFOR soldiers are impartial.
Serbs Accuse Albanians Oliver Ivanovic, the leader of the town's Serb community, accused Albanians of provoking the latest violence to distract from ethnic Albanian guerrilla attacks in southern Serbia. Thursday's violence began after young protesters gathered at the southern end of the main bridge over the river Ibar, which divides Mitrovica into Albanian and Serb-dominated sections. They were told to leave by Italian peacekeepers. They marched to another bridge and threw some rocks at a checkpoint of French soldiers. The soldiers responded by firing stun grenades, also known as percussion grenades, which make a booming sound intended to scatter crowds in panic.