U.N. police stoned in Kosovo

U.N. troops have come under a series of attacks while on duty in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Serbs threw stones and fired a shot at U.N. police vehicles in the latest disturbance to affect the province.

Demonstrators threw stones in protest at the arrests of two Serb suspects alleged to have killed a Kosovo Albanian two years ago.

A stone slightly injured one police officer during the protest in the Serb-dominated part of the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica, scene of several violent incidents since the Yugoslav province came under international control in 1999.

One shot was fired at a U.N. police vehicle but missed, the officials said, adding the situation later calmed down with protesters dispersing.

"About half an hour after the arrest, which went smoothly, people came out on the street and started protesting. They threw stones at two U.N. police vehicles and one was shot at," U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel told reporters on Thursday.

The incident was one of a series following sensitive arrests by international police in Kosovo on both sides of the ethnic divide.

Kosovo Albanians have staged several protests after police last month arrested three former members of the rebel group which fought minority Serb rule in 1999. They are suspected of war crimes against civilians.

U.N. police spokesman John Chapman said the two Serb males arrested early in the morning in Kosovska Mitrovica were suspected of involvement in a grenade attack that killed Muharrem Sokoli, 50, on February 3, 2000.

Eight other ethnic Albanians were killed and about 20, most of them Serbs, injured in night of violence, one of the worst spates of attacks in post-war Kosovo.

It erupted the day after attackers fired a rocket at a bus carrying Serbs in an area southwest of the ethnically divided town, killing two and injuring three others.

Kosovo was placed under U.N.-led administration in June 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes, launched to halt Serb repression of Albanians.

In January four U.N. police officers were attacked and their cars stoned by a rioting mob in Kosovska Mitrovica. The crowd also burned a U.N. vehicle.

That rioting began after NATO-led peacekeepers raided a bar and detained a Serb hardline militant who had been seen carrying an illegal weapon.

Kosovska Mitrovica, an industrial city 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina, is divided along ethnic lines and has seen a number of ethnically motivated attacks and riots.