Violence Flares in Kosovo

A bomb explosion rocked a building used by the Yugoslav representative in Kosovo early Wednesday, killing one staff member and injuring another. Top NATO and U.N. officials in the province condemned the attack.

U.N. officials said seven people were inside the house at the time of the blast, including Yugoslav representative Stanimir Vukicevic.

Violence also flared on the Serbian side of the Kosovo border, where at least four police officers were killed during clashes with ethnic Albanian militants in the Presevo Valley, top Yugoslav government officials said Wednesday.

The clashes, which started Tuesday afternoon and lasted through the night, could sharpen tension in the already volatile, predominantly ethnic Albanian area, said government official Zoran Djindjic.

“Those are big clashes,” Djindjic said, claiming that about 400 heavily armed ethnic Albanian rebels launched the attack from Kosovo. “This could lead to a large-scale war.”

In Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers said the blast at the house, which sent glass and debris flying up to 150 yards away, may have been caused by up to 22 pounds of explosives attached to the side of the building.

Two Serbian staff members were seriously injured and transported to a hospital, where one later died, according to a statement from Bernard Kouchner, chief U.N. administrator in Kosovo.

Kosovo is under United Nations administration but remains part of Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia.