NATO bolsters force in torn Kosovo

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro - Ethnic Albanians torched Serb homes and churches Thursday as Kosovo convulsed in a second day of violence, its worst since the province's war ended in 1999.

Serbian nationalists set mosques elsewhere on fire and threatened to retaliate with "slaughter and death." NATO sent reinforcements to quell tensions in the U.N.-run province and ease the threat of renewed conflict in the volatile Balkans.

The clashes, which began Wednesday when ethnic Albanians blamed Serbs for the drownings of two children, have killed at least 31 people and wounded hundreds more, including several dozen U.N. police and NATO peacekeepers, according to U.N. spokeswoman Izabella Karlowicz.

The violence, which spilled beyond Kosovo's borders into the Serbian heartland, also dealt the Bush administration a potential setback in efforts to reduce the number of peacekeepers in the Balkans and redeploy them to Iraq, Afghanistan and other hotspots.

"The international community's drive to reduce (NATO) forces and the U.N. police for cost reasons and because of Iraq has turned out to be an error," warned Winfried Nachtwei, a German lawmaker who visited Kosovo this week.

The White House called for an end to violence in Kosovo and said President Bush met with his national security team to monitor the situation. The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade closed temporarily to the public as a precaution.

Serbia-Montenegro's military raised the combat readiness of some units to their highest level, and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, warned that the situation was not under control.

But the United Nations and NATO, which was bolstering its 18,500-member peacekeeping force with 1,100 more troops, played down the risk of fresh conflict in Kosovo or elsewhere in the region.

"I don't believe there is a possibility of a war. We will do what is necessary to restore and uphold law and order," said Jamie Shea, a NATO spokesman.

On Thursday, a mob surrounded and set an Orthodox church on fire in a suburb of Kosovo's capital, Pristina. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to push people back. Gunshots were heard throughout the city and military helicopters hovered over the crowds.

An ethnic Albanian mob clashed with peacekeepers and U.N. police on a road leading to the Serb enclave of Caglavica, the scene of street fighting a day earlier. Peacekeepers fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia-Montenegro, demonstrators set the city's 17th century mosque on fire after clashing with police. A mob also torched a mosque in Nis, Serbia's second-largest city.

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