Kosovo Rioters Clash With French Troops

Hundreds of ethnic Albanians pelted French soldiers with stones and bottles Friday to protest the NATO-led peacekeepers’ failure to prevent the deaths of at least six Kosovo Albanians.

The clashes in this volatile city came after a night of violence that also left about two dozen Serbs injured and 10 U.N. vehicles burned.

The French troops fired tear gas to disperse about 500 rioters at a main bridge. Armed members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, made up of former ethnic Albanian rebels, later appeared and calmed the crowd. Four or five French soldiers were injured; one of them suffered a broken arm.

The Ibar River runs through the heart of this industrial city about 20 miles northwest of Kosovo’s provincial capital, Pristina. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.

About 9,000 Serbs control the north bank, and 90,000 ethnic Albanians live on the south side.

French peacekeepers guard two bridges, keeping the groups apart to avert violence. However, thousands of ethnic Albanians live north of the river on the Serbian side.

The latest round of violence began after a rocket attack Wednesday killed two Serbs on a bus run by the U.N. refugee agency that was carrying them through predominantly ethnic Albanian areas near Kosovska Mitrovica.

The next night, violence broke out in the Serbian-controlled northern side of the city.

Two ethnic Albanian men were shot to death. Half an hour later, a grenade was thrown into a Serbian cafe, wounding up to 15 people. An ethnic Albanian woman was shot and killed, and another grenade was tossed into another Serbian cafe, wounding 10.

At least three other ethnic Albanians who were injured in the shootings died Friday, officials with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said.

Crowds of angry Serbs and ethnic Albanians gathered on opposite sides of the bridges. Scuffles and rock-throwing persisted into Friday, a French military spokesman said.