Kosovo Serbs gather in the northern part of Mitrovica on September 26, 2023 to pay their respect and light candles for the gunmen killed in the clashes with Kosovo police near the border with Serbia during the weekend. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)
Belgrade: Serbia on Wednesday observed an official day of mourning as the country cancelled sporting events and lowered flags to half mast, with a minister calling the Serb gunmen killed in Kosovo over the weekend "martyrs".
The killing of a Kosovo police officer and an ensuing gun battle at a monastery in a village near the Serbian border marked one of the gravest escalations in the former breakaway province in years.
Three Serb gunmen were killed in an hours-long firefight with Kosovo police, after they ambushed a patrol near the village of Banjska and later barricaded themselves at an Orthodox monastery.
Kosovo authorities had earlier said four gunmen were killed in the melee but later put the number of dead at three.
The incident has triggered strong emotions in Kosovo and Serbia, with both sides pinning responsibility for the bloody clashes on the other.
In Serbia, officials have denied backing the gunmen who attacked the police but many have offered gushing praise for their actions.
Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said the gunmen were the latest in a long line of fighters who died "for freedom of Kosovo and freedom of Serbia".
"They are the new victims in this line of heroes or martyrs," the minister told state-run RTS television on Wednesday.
Several newspapers also hailed the gunmen, with headlines calling them "heroes" and saying the country was collectively in "tears".
The Pristina government has continued to accuse the Serbian government of backing the attack on its police force, a charge Belgrade denies.
Earlier this week, a Kosovo court remanded three suspected gunmen into custody after they were arrested over the weekend.
Questions remained over the fate of the remaining assailants who participated in the attack, with Kosovo authorities saying at least six had escaped across the border into Serbia.
The attack came more than a week after negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia leaders on improving ties failed to make a breakthrough during European Union-sponsored talks in Brussels.
Tensions in Kosovo's troubled north have been smouldering for months, following the Pristina government's decision in May to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities there.
Demonstrations followed, as well as the arrest by Serbia of three Kosovar police officers and a riot by Serb protesters which saw more than 30 NATO peacekeepers injured.
The clash in the north is just the latest incident to rock the area since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Belgrade -- and key allies China and Russia -- have refused to recognise the move.
Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since a war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s that drew NATO intervention against Belgrade.
