Pristina (ANTARA News/AFP) - Kosovo Serbs shot and wounded two soldiers from the NATO-led KFOR force stationed in northern Kosovo during clashes on Monday, a spokesman for the force said.

The violence erupted after KFOR seized control of a roadblock in Zupce on the Mitrovica-Brnjak road, the latest incident between the peacekeepers and Serbs.

"The demonstrators used small firearms, wounding two soldiers. Their condition is not known at the moment," KFOR spokesman Dan Harvey said in a statement.

"The clash is still going on and the demonstrators are still using small firearms and throwing stones at KFOR as soldiers are responding with water cannon and rubber bullets," he added.

According to an AFP journalist on the spot KFOR was using tear gas and water cannons against a crowd of some 400 to 500 Serb protesters.

The vast majority of the population in northern Kosovo comprises Serbs who have rejected Kosovo`s 2008 declaration of independence and still consider the territory a Serbian province.

They have erected roadblocks leading to the Jarinje and Brnjak border post with Serbia, to protest the presence of customs and border officials from the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina.

NATO and the EU mission in Kosovo EULEX have repeatedly called for the roadblocks to be lifted to allow freedom of movement. KFOR has dismantled several Serb barricades but usually a new roadblok is quickly set up just several hundred meters (yards) from the previous one.
(U.C003)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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