A Kosovo Serb translator working for the UN was kidnapped early Thursday in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, during a demonstration by around 150 Serbs angered by dawn raids carried out by UN and NATO forces.
"During the protest, they destroyed a UNMIK police car and slightly injured an UNMIK police officer. They kidnapped the translator of the injured officer," said Major Steven Sharpell, a spokesman for the NATO peacekeeping force KFOR.
At dawn, French KFOR troops and UN administration (UNMIK) police had mounted a joint operation to search three Serbian homes in northern Mitrovica, the same source said.
A cache of arms, including 11 AK-47 assault rifles, nine 80mm anti-tank rockets, seven hand grenades, 1,500 rounds of ammunition and two packs of plastic explosives, were seized during the raids.
A 20-year-old Serbian woman was also arrested.
KFOR had deployed more units on the streets and were searching for the missing translator. The situation was calm but tense with no further incidents reported, Sharpell said.
Mitrovica has in the past been the scene of fierce clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
The two communities are largely separated by the river Ibar which runs through the center of the town, dividing the Serb-majority north and the ethnic Albanian south. But pockets of ethnic Albanians, Serbs and Roma gypsies live on both banks.
As in the rest of the province, NATO troops and UN police have been responsible for security in Mitrovica since Kosovo came under the control of the international community after the NATO bombardments of Yugoslavia which ended in June last year -- PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AFP)
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