Leposavic: On Monday, clashes with Serb protesters left about 25 NATO peacekeeping troops defending three town halls in northern Kosovo hurt, and Serbia's president ordered the army to the highest state of combat readiness. The violence was denounced by KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

"Several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the targets of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices," it said in a statement. "While countering the most active fringes of the crowd."

Seven Hungarian soldiers were seriously hurt, according to Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the defence minister of Hungary, and they will be transported to Hungary for medical attention. He stated that 20 soldiers had been hurt. Infighting also resulted in injuries to Italian soldiers.

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The situation is wholly unacceptable and reckless, according to a statement from Giorgia Meloni of Italy. "It is imperative to prevent further unilateral actions by the Kosovar authorities and that all parties involved immediately take a step back to defuse the tensions."

Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, reported that 52 Serbs were hurt, three of them critically. Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, was charged with destabilising Kosovo by Vjosa Osmani, the president of Kosovo.

"Serb criminal gangs operating out of illegal structures have attacked journalists, police, and KFOR (peacekeeping) personnel in Kosovo. Osmani tweeted, "Justice must be served to those who carry out Vucic's orders to destabilise the northern part of Kosovo.

Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo, was charged by Vucic with inciting unrest. He urged Serbs in Kosovo to keep their distance from NATO troops.

The tense situation arose after ethnic Albanian mayors were elected in the Serb majority area of northern Kosovo following elections that the Serbs boycotted; this action prompted the US and its allies to criticise Pristina on Friday.

Witnesses claim that in one of the towns, Zvecan, the Kosovo police, which is now made up entirely of ethnic Albanians after Serbs left the force last year, used pepper gas to fend off a group of Serbs who were attempting to break into the municipal building by breaking through a security barricade.

NATO soldiers in Zvecan were attacked by tear gas and stun grenades from Serb protesters. Additionally, there were clashes between Serbs and police in Zvecan, and NATO vehicles were spray-painted with the letter "Z," a reference to a Russian sign used during the conflict in Ukraine.
US peacekeeping troops in riot gear surrounded the town hall in Leposavic, which is close to the Serbian border, with barbed wire to keep hundreds of enraged Serbs away.

Later on in the day, demonstrators threw eggs at the new mayor of Leposavic's parked car. According to Defence Minister Milos Vucevic, Vucic, the head of the Serbian armed forces, increased the army's combat readiness to the highest level.

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This suggests that the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces issued additional orders just before 2:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) for the deployment of the army's units in specific, designated positions," Vucevic said without going into further detail.

Witnesses claimed that NATO peacekeepers also blocked off Zubin Potok's town hall to shield it from enraged local Serbs.
The deputy leader of the largest Kosovo Serb party supported by Belgrade, the Serb List, Igor Simic, charged Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti with inciting unrest in the region.

"Peace is important to us. Only he (Kurti) wants to create chaos, while all the local Albanians want peace, Simic told reporters in Zvecan.

More than 20 years after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against oppressive Serbian rule, Serbs, who make up the majority in Kosovo's north, still see Belgrade as their capital. They have never accepted Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.

In Kosovo as a whole, ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population, but northern Serbs have long pushed for the implementation of a 2013 agreement mediated by the EU for the formation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their region.

In four Serb-majority municipalities, including North Mitrovica, where no incidents were reported on Monday, ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoral elections in April as a result of the Serbs' refusal to participate.

Serbs demand that the Kosovo government oust mayors of ethnic Albanian descent and reinstate local administrations supported by Belgrade.
The police, who were attacked with rocks and used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd, led three of the four ethnic Albanian mayors into their offices on Friday.

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The United States and its allies, who have firmly backed Kosovo's independence, censured Pristina on Friday for appointing mayors in Serb-majority areas without popular support, saying that this undermined efforts to normalise relations.
After a weekend phone call with the head of foreign policy for the European Union, Kurti tweeted in support of Pristina's stance: "Emphasised that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens."

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According to Ivica Dacic, the foreign minister of Serbia, "having mayors who have not been elected by Serbs in Serb-majority municipalities is not possible."
After speaking with Kurti, Jeffrey Hovenier, the US ambassador to Kosovo, told reporters, "We are concerned about reports today about violence against official property."

"We have seen pictures of graffiti on KFOR and police vehicles, and we have heard reports of attacks on journalists. We condemn these acts and believe that such a reaction is inappropriate."