French Troops Hold Off Albanians

French peacekeeping troops fought back hundreds of ethnic Albanians who tried for hours to cross a bridge over the Ibar River on Saturday to get to the Serbian part of this divided town in northern Kosovo.

Amid curses, shoving and obscene gestures, dozens of French soldiers kept the ethnic Albanians from crossing the span, while an equally agitated Serbian crowd jeered from the far side.

At least four ethnic Albanians were briefly arrested after fighting with the soldiers, who are in Kosovo as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping effort.

Three people were injured, including one woman who was taken away in an ambulance after being knocked down.

Kosovska Mitrovica is divided by the river into separate ethnic communities. Since the end of the war over Kosovo in June, the central bridge has become a symbol of confrontation, with Serbs preventing ethnic Albanians from returning to live north of the river.

Efforts by the U.N. have failed to work out a free-movement agreement, and Saturday’s violence came after Serbs withdrew an offer to let the ethnic Albanians travel for two days last week, according to Mary Pat Silveira, the deputy U.N. chief in the city.

When the soldiers pushed back the ethnic Albanians on Saturday, they were accused of siding with the Serbs.

The ethnic Albanian crowd shouted, “French terrorists!” and made obscene gestures. Several shoving matches with kicking and punching erupted between the French soldiers and young men.

French Lt. Meriadic Raffray said peacekeepers had been escorting limited numbers of ethnic Albanians across the bridge over the last few days. He accused ethnic Albanian extremists of trying “to provoke a reaction like this.”

Local leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla group being disbanded under an agreement with NATO, led the protest and eventually persuaded the crowd to disperse after the four people arrested were freed.

The violence occurred amid growing concern over the safety of peacekeeping troops.

A Russian soldier was shot in the leg Thursday by an unknown sniper.