Kosovo riot police and KFOR (International Military Mission to Kosovo) military police secure entrance to municipal building in Zvecan, northern Kosovo on May 29, 2023, following clashes with Serb protesters demanding the removal of recently elected Albanian mayors. (PHOTO / AFP)

LEPOSAVIC, Kosovo – Around 25 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters on Monday, while Serbia's president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.

KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence.

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

READ MORE: EU's Borrell: Kosovo, Serbia failed to agree on lowering tensions

Hungary's defense minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that 7 Hungarian soldiers were seriously injured and that they will be taken to Hungary for treatment. He said 20 soldiers were injured. Italian soldiers were also injured in clashes.

Serbs have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against Serbian rule

"What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible," Italy's Giorgia Meloni said in a statement.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that 52 Serbs were injured, three of them seriously.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic of destabilizing Kosovo.

"Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeeping) officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic's orders to destabilize the north of Kosovo, must face justice," Osmani tweeted.

Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of creating tensions. He called on Serbs in Kosovo to avoid clashes with NATO soldiers.

The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted – a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.

In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police – staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year – sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building, witnesses said.

Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gas and stun grenades at NATO soldiers. 

In Leposavic, close to the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in riot gear placed barbed wire around the town hall to protect it from hundreds of angry Serbs.

Later in the day protesters threw eggs at a parked car belonging to the new Leposavic mayor.

Vucic, who is the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces, raised the army's combat readiness to the highest level, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters.

ALSO READ: Serbia, Kosovo agree to implement deal normalizing ties

"This implies that immediately before 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), the Serbian Armed Forces' Chief of the General Staff issued additional instructions for the deployment of the army's units in specific, designated positions," Vucevic said, without elaborating.

NATO peacekeepers also blocked off the town hall in Zubin Potok to protect it from angry local Serbs, witnesses said.

Igor Simic, deputy head of the Serb List, the biggest Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of fuelling tensions in the north.

Serbs from Kosovo gather to demand the removal of recently elected Albanian mayors outside municipal building in Zvecan, northern Kosovo, May 29, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

Tear gas

Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo's north, have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against Serbian rule.

Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.

Serbs refused to take part in local elections in April and ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoralties in four Serb-majority municipalities – including North Mitrovica, where no incidents were reported on Monday – with a 3.5 percent turnout.

Serbs demand that the Kosovo government remove ethnic Albanian mayors from town halls and allow local administrations financed by Belgrade resume their work.

READ MORE: 8 dead in Serbia's second mass shooting, suspect arrested

On Friday, three out of the four ethnic Albanian mayors were escorted into their offices by police, who were pelted with rocks and responded with tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.

The United States and its allies, which have strongly backed Kosovo's independence, rebuked Pristina on Friday, saying imposing mayors in Serb-majority areas without popular support undercut efforts to normalize relations.

Kurti defended Pristina's position, tweeting after a weekend phone call with the European Union's foreign policy chief: "Emphasized that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens."

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told RTS it was "not possible to have mayors who have not been elected by Serbs in Serb-majority municipalities".