Craig M. Snow. Kath Hurley, a NATO spokeswoman, said three British soldiers were injured. NATO had no reports of civilian casualties, but the Belgrade-based independent news agency Beta said a Serb man and child were injured in a scuffle with British troops. British troops have been stoned and beaten into retreat in earlier incursions into the Serb-controlled areas of the town. The U.N. Mission in Kosovo had repeatedly asked the Serbs, who control the area north of Kosovo Mitrovica, to close down the smelting plant temporarily after it was found that lead levels in the atmosphere were up to 200 times higher than considered safe.
Lead poisoning can cause brain damage, particularly in children.
Kouchner said the takeover was necessary to end a health risk. News of the lead levels sparked a rare moment of solidarity in Kosovo Mitrovica, prompting Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders to join U.N. personnel in publicly having their blood tested. Another NATO Peacekeeping Force spokesman confirmed that the British troops will withdraw and hand over control to the U.N. Mission in Kosovo after they have secured the plant, but added that this was part of a larger campaign to bring Kosovo's substantial mineral resources, currently held ransom by the small Serb minority, back into the economy. Milosevic has sworn to win those resources back. Without them, the rest of the Serb economy cannot function, economists say.