The United States raises the alert: Serbia is massing troops on the border with Kosovo, the scene of bloody clashes last weekend. Washington asked Belgrade to "withdraw them immediately", while NATO gave the green light to the deployment of new forces in the north of the Kosovar republic "in order to continue to guarantee a safe environment for all the people who live there".

The spokesman for the American National Security Council, John Kirby, has in fact announced that Washington "sees a significant Serbian military deployment along the border, including the unprecedented presence of artillery, tanks and infantry units".

Kirby did not mention the risk of a possible Serbian invasion in his former province, which Belgrade still does not recognize as independent, where for days tensions that never completely subsided have been rekindled and which resulted in violent clashes between Serbs and the police a week ago in Banjska local.

However, NATO has ordered the sending of additional forces from KFOR, the mission of the Atlantic Alliance in Kosovo, "to deal with the current situation", after having already strengthened its presence last May.

(Unioneonline/L)