Three Die as Iraq Said to Spark UN Police Fight Reuters

Three Die as Iraq Said to Spark UN Police Fight
Reuters - April 17, 2004

By Branislav Krstic

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Two Americans and a Jordanian were killed on Saturday when violent emotions over Iraq boiled over into a shootout between members of the U.N. law enforcement mission in Kosovo.

U.N. police spokesman Neeraj Singh said three police officers -- two American and one Jordanian -- were killed and 11 others wounded.

Unconfirmed reports spoke of up to five dead and 14 wounded in a 10-minute exchange of fire at the U.N. compound in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica -- usually the scene of peace-making interventions by U.N. police and NATO troops.

The deputy head of the Serb hospital in Mitrovica, Milan Ivanovic, said one of the dead was an American woman, hit along with four female U.S. colleagues.

U.N. police sources said four Jordanian police officers had been arrested in connection with the shooting, but could give no further details on the cause. Other police sources said it began with a row over Iraq followed by gunfire.

The fire-fight between fellow members of the U.N. force was unprecedented in five years of peacekeeping in Kosovo, where police of some 30 nations make up the international force of around 3,500.

The force is backed by the NATO-led KFOR military mission numbering about 20,000 troops.

"What is official is that seven international police officers with serious injuries were received at the Serbian hospital in northern Mitrovica," Ivanovic said.

"Six are American citizens, one is Austrian. Out of the seven, five are women, two are males. One American woman died soon after she was admitted to the hospital," he added, giving the names of six victims.

"According to unofficial information I have, there are more wounded. It has been said that there are 14 wounded, even some five dead," Ivanovic told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Shaban Buza)

Posted for Fair Use only.