Yugoslavia: Serb Police At Checkpoint In Kosovo Come Under Attack By Snipers

Record ID: 3973

  • Title: Yugoslavia: Serb Police At Checkpoint In Kosovo Come Under Attack By Snipers
  • Date: 24th March 1998
  • Summary: Serb police staffing a checkpoint west of Kosovo's regional capital of Pristina, have come under attack by snipers. The firefight appeared to be part of a larger conflict centred around the Kosovo village of Dubrava, where the sound of machine-gun fire, rockets and helicopters continued all Tuesday afternoon and late evening. The Serbian police at the checkpoint at Kijevo, 45 kms (23 miles) from Pristina, ran for cover as the gunfire began on Tuesday (March 24). They started to return fire at positions where they believed the snipers were hiding, and extra forces were called in. Soon Serbian police were running in all directions firing at various presumed snipers positions while people in cars at the checkpoint keep out of the line of fire. It was not known who the snipers were, but the violence erupted as a new hard-line Serbian government, including radical nationalists, was unveiled on the eve of a meeting of the six-nation Contact Group which will decide whether to impose more sanctions on Belgrade for its handling of the Kosovo crisis. Machine-gun fire ripped through the countryside and rocket-grenades whooshed and thudded as night fell on Tuesday around the village of Dubrava, the latest battleground between Serbian police and Kosovo's Albanian separatists. A Reuters Television crew were filming as darkness fell over the flashpoint village of Dubrova with no immediate end to fighting evident. The crew heard heavy machine gun fire. Earlier the crew filmed as helicopters buzzed over the village, which is just 20 km (12 miles) north of the Yugoslav-Albanian border, and police, present in large numbers, ordered journalists who reached the area to leave.
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  • Location: YUGOSLAVIA
  • Reuters ID: LDL00128LTKWR
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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