Kosovo police arrest Serb suspected of planning terror attack

Kosovo police have arrested a Serbian national suspected of planning a terrorist attack, the interior minister said yesterday.

The suspect, from Belgrade, was arrested on Thursday evening with 12.2kg of explosives in his car in a street in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, where many western embassies are located, Skender Hyseni said.

“We suspect the clear aim of this person was to commit a terrorist attack,” he told journalists.

Kosovo media speculated that possible targets were embassies or the Catholic cathedral. Hyseni said he could not reveal details of potential targets because the investigation was still under way.

Security is fragile in Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 following a 1998-99 war in which Nato warplanes bombed Serbia.

Some 5,000 Nato troops remain stationed in the new country.

Kosovo has raised the alarm over its citizens going to fight in Syria and Iraq for Islamic State.

More than 20 Kosovars have been killed in the two countries, and security agencies say 100-200 people from Kosovo are believed to have gone to fight for the Islamist group. – (Reuters)