'Larger plan': Kosovo says Serbia plotting to seize northern region

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has accused Serbia of plotting to annex the country's northern territories, citing a recent deadly attack by a Serbian armed group on Kosovar police as part of that plot.

"Based on confiscated documentation, Kosovo police have confirmed that the terrorist attack was part of a larger plan to annex the north of Kosova via a coordinated attack on 37 distinct positions. Establishing a corridor to Serbia would follow, to enable the supply of arms and troops," Kurti said on Monday on the X platform, previously known as Twitter.

Kurti's allegations came a day after Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla made similar accusations.

Kosovo on Sunday posted footage and photos showing the armed group trained in Pasuljanske Livade, one of the Serbian Army's key bases.

Four days prior to the attacks, exercises were held at the Kopaonik base. The attacks were fully supported and planned by the Serbian state, Kurti alleged.

Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic rejected allegations.

"The Serbian army never entered the territory of Kosovo,” he said, suggesting that a "greater presence of NATO forces in Kosovo would improve the security of local Serbs."

NATO peacekeepers

According to Svecla, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Defence Minister Milos Vucevic, and Army Chief of Staff Milan Mojsilovic were all directly involved in the attempt.

Vucevic and Mojsilovic will hold a press conference in the Serbian capital Belgrade to respond to the Kosovo allegations.

On Sept. 24, a clash broke out in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo near the Serbian border when a group of armed Serbs blocked a bridge with two trucks. A shootout erupted after the group opened fire on police, leaving one police officer dead and another injured.

A large number of security forces were dispatched to the region, and the Brnjak border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia was closed.

The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, followed by protests against the election of ethnic Albanian mayors.

Albanians are by far the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, followed by Serbs, with about half living in the country's north.

Amid the unrest over the elections, NATO peacekeepers were deployed, including a group of extra Turkish reinforcements.

The last week has seen a “large Serbian military deploym ent along the border with Kosovo," according to the US National Security Council, whose spokesman called the deployment “a very destabilising development".

Kosovo on Saturday called on Serbia to pull back its troops.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote Friday on X that “NATO Allies met today & expressed deep concern about tensions in northern Kosovo.”

Vucic later denied that Serbia was engaging in a military build-up along the border with Kosovo.

“A campaign of lies…has been launched against our Serbia,” he said in a video posted on Instagram on Sunday.

“They have lied a lot about the presence of our military forces…In fact, they are bothered that Serbia has what they describe as sophisticated weapons,” he added.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and gained recognition from many countries, including Türkiye.

But Belgrade has never recognised Kosovo and claims that its territory is still part of Serbia.