Bomb Destroys Kosovo Bridge, Stops Train
A bomb destroyed a railway bridge in northeastern Kosovo, stopping a Serbian passenger train and rocking a nearby encampment of peacekeepers, NATO officials said Saturday.
The crater caused by Friday night’s blast in the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica forced NATO peacekeepers to stop a Serbian passenger train packed with 400 people. It was unclear if the blast was meant to go off as the train passed.
Five NATO peacekeepers, camped on the other side of the bridge, suffered minor injuries.
Thousands of Serbs angrily protested the blast in Kosovska Mitrovica, about 25 miles from Pristina, heightening tensions in a city known for recent clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
NATO and U.N. police said the explosion occurred about two hours before a passenger train was due to cross the bridge. Peacekeepers stopped the train a safe distance from the damaged structure.
The train normally makes the trip to Kosovo Polje, just south of Pristina, in the late afternoon but was delayed on Friday, said Beatrice Lacoste, a U.N. spokeswoman.
Local Serbs accused ethnic Albanians of targeting the train.
The device was planted on the southern, ethnic Albanian side of the town, Vuko Antonijevic, a Serbian leader from Kosovska Mitrovica, told independent radio B-92.
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