Twenty-three NATO peacekeepers were injured on Monday afternoon and evening in a clash with Serb protesters in the north Kosovo village of Jagnjenica, the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) said.
The clash erupted during the removal of a barricade on a road leading to the Brnjak crossing on the Serbian border.
The protesters cannot be called peaceful, but violent and criminal, KFOR said, adding that its troops had used tear gas and rubber bullets so far but would use all appropriate means if their lives continued to be endangered.
Any action that undermines a safe environment or anyone's life is unacceptable, KFOR said, adding that it would use all appropriate means to ensure the safety of all people and troops.
The situation in Jagnjenica calmed down after KFOR removed the roadblock but ethnic Serbs continue to rally on that road, the media said.
Earlier on Monday, a clash erupted also on the Kosovska Mitrovca-Zubin Potok road as KFOR troops were removing a roadblock. KFOR used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse the protesters, who threw stones and sticks at the peacekeepers and, according to KFOR, shot from small-calibre weapons.
Two peacekeepers were wounded by firearms and several dozen civilians were injured. The Serbs deny using firearms.
In north Kosovo, local Serbs will not allow the Kosovo authorities, whom they do not recognise, to control the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings on the Serbian border. They put up roadblocks at the crossings and the roads leading to them in September. Since then, the situation is mainly calm but tense, with KFOR sometimes removing the roadblocks and local Serbs putting up new ones.
