Washington: The US State Department demanded the immediate release of the three Kosovo police officers after accusing Serbia of escalating tensions by detaining them this week.

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, pleaded with Serbia "to immediately and unconditionally release the three Kosovo police detained on June 14."

The situation has become even more tense as a result of their arrest and continued detention on false charges, he continued. Following the arrest of three Kosovo police officers by Serbia earlier this week, tensions between Belgrade and Pristina grew.

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As a "security measure," Kosovo barred all Serbian trucks from entering its borders and declared the detentions to be kidnappings.
Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, downplayed the arrest and charged Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo, with "wanting to provoke a war."

The missing border patrol officers who were being detained belonged to a unit that had reported the presence of armed, masked intruders in the area.
Since the police-supported installation of ethnic Albanian mayors in four northern Kosovo towns with a majority of Serbs in May, tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have risen sharply.

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The action sparked rioting that injured 30 NATO-led peacekeepers.
While publicly criticising the Kosovo government's choice to install the mayors, France, Germany, and the United States have urged both sides to defuse the situation.

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Vucic and Kurti were asked by the EU to get together in Brussels the following week.
Kosovo, a nation with a large ethnic Albanian population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade, supported by Russia and China, has never acknowledged it.
Most Kosovo Serbs continue to support Belgrade and oppose Pristina's sovereignty.