(1 Feb 2001) English/Nat
XFA
NATO-led peacekeepers chased demonstrators through the streets of Mitrovica city on Thursday as ethnic Albanians rioted near a base used by French soldiers.
German, French and British soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd which gathered in the predominantly ethnic Albanian section of Kosovska Mitrovica.
The industrial city has been rocked by unrest since Monday, when a 15-year-old ethnic Albanian was killed in a grenade attack.
Several people have been injured, hospital officials said.
The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
The move to clear the area near the French base came after scuffles broke out in another part of the city earlier in the day.
In that incident, demonstrators had targeted French soldiers guarding a small bridge spanning the Ibar River, which separates the city into an ethnic Albanian southern part and a predominantly Serb northern section.
French soldiers used tear gas and stun grenades to break up the melee.
Many ethnic Albanians in Kosovo distrust the French peacekeepers because they believe they are pro-Serb.
British and Italian K-FOR troops moved in to help back up the French troops.
U-S Police officers in the town also got involved trying to separate the ethnic-Albanians from the French troops.
On Wednesday, demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails injured 20 peacekeepers.
Most, if not all of the wounded soldiers, appeared to be French.
Kosovska Mitrovica remains the province's most tense town, more than one-and-a-half years after NATO ended its 78-day air war.
The air campaign was launched to force former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his crackdown on ethnic Albanians.
It remains a province of Serbia, the larger of Yugoslavia's two republics.
This week's riots in the city 25 miles (40 kilometres) from the capital, Pristina, come nearly a year after massive clashes rocked the city.
A dozen people were killed then and many others were injured.
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