PRISTINA, Feb 22: A group of protesters clashed on Friday with UN police in Mitrovica, hurling firecrackers and flares at a flashpoint bridge they were guarding in the ethnically divided Kosovo town.

But security forces, along with the UN and local Kosovo police, managed to push them back and “isolate them from the crowd,” a security official said.

The group had travelled from Serbia for a student protest in the northern town, crossing the border where Kosovo police had stepped up security earlier in the day.

Kosovo Police Service (KPS) spokesman Besim Hoti said that “police absolutely have not used force.” “The protesters used fireworks and torches, so it might look like tear gas,” Hoti said.

An official with the Nato-led peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR) confirmed the situation at the disputed bridge was calm, while the protesters were later seen returning to Serbia, said a correspondent.

More Serbs who were travelling to Kosovo on several buses had been turned back at the Jarinje border crossing, which was one of two posts torched and destroyed on Tuesday by at least 1,000 Serbs from both Serbia and Kosovo. The protesters who clashed with police had crossed the border using privately owned vehicles.

Earlier, border checkpoint officials had been “ordered to control and conduct searches of all people, vehicles and cars that enter the territory of Kosovo from the Serbian side,” said the KPS.

“From today at 6:00 am (0500 GMT), the entry of all people, vehicles and buses which come from Serbia and are suspected to aim participation in protests in Kosovo are forbidden to enter in a selective way,” it added.

“These measures have been taken to maintain public order and peace in the territory of Kosovo after the events in Belgrade.” The new security measures came after a series of attacks by Serbs, the latest at the Merdare crossing, where former Serbian army reservists had hurled stones and burning tyres at the checkpoint on Thursday.

The commander of Nato-led Kosovo Force peacekeepers, General Xavier Bout de Marnhac, blamed Serb leaders from northern Kosovo for Tuesday’s attacks at the Banja and Jarinje crossing points.

On Thursday, a peaceful protest by tens of thousands of Serbs in Belgrade turned violent, with rioters setting fire to the US embassy and attacking other missions, mainly those of western countries that have recognised Kosovo’s independence.—AFP