A Nato commander said on Thursday that extra US forces were being deployed in Kosovo's Serb-dominated north as tensions rise there after the collapse of independence talks. Based at Camp Nothing Hill, the 90 soldiers were reinforcing some 2,800 peacekeepers already positioned across northern Kosovo, Xavier Bout of Marnhac, the commander of Nato-led KFOR troops, told AFP.
"We are confident that KFOR is everywhere and ready to respond to any kind of threat," the French general said after a short ceremony to mark the start of the deployment. Camp Nothing Hill is the northernmost Nato base in Kosovo, set among mountains near the town of Leposavic some 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) from Serbia proper.
Germany had previously announced it would be sending an extra 500 troops to Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia whose ethnic Albanian majority is impatient for independence.
The US forces were deployed a day after the failure of the talks on Kosovo's future status fuelled fears of violence as ethnic Albanian leaders promised to speedily declare statehood. Kosovo has been under United Nations rule since Nato's 1999 air war ended a conflict that killed up to 10,000 Albanians and displaced hundreds of thousands. Its north is mainly populated by Serbs who are threatening to secede if the leaders of the province's 90-percent Albanians proclaim independence against the will of Belgrade.
A troika of European Union, Russian and United States mediators is to visit Belgrade and Pristina on Monday, a week before it must report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
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