Four Kosovo policemen suspended over Serb's shooting

Kosovo police on Tuesday suspended four officers over a shooting incident in which an ethnic Serb was wounded in the country's volatile north.

The incident late Monday reflects soaring tensions between Pristina and ethnic Serbs less than a month after arch-foes Kosovo and Serbia stopped short of signing a deal on normalising ties.

Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia does not recognise this and encourages Kosovo's 120,000 ethnic Serbs to defy Pristina's authority -- especially in the north where they make up the majority.

Milan Jovanovic said he was shot while driving next to a Kosovo police checkpoint on a road near the flashpoint city of Mitrovica.

Jovanovic, who underwent surgery in a Mitrovica hospital, told the Serbian state-run RTS television, he heard a shot and felt a pain in his shoulder just after passing the checkpoint.

"I really do not know who opened fire," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo Petar Petkovic said on Facebook police opened fire on Jovanovic "only because he is a Serb".

Kosovo police first denied any involvement but later Tuesday said four officers were suspended over their "possible involvement" in the incident.

Northern Kosovo has been on the edge since November when hundreds of ethnic Serbs in local administration walked off the job to protest a new decree by Pristina that banned Serbian licence plates issued for Kosovo from being used on its territory.

Tensions later boiled over between the two sides with ethnic Serbs erecting barricades that sealed off three border crossings with Serbia.

Since late March, 10 cars belonging to ethnic Serbs were set on fire.