Tensions flare as Kosovo Serbs clash with NATO-led peacekeepers and police.

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo clashed with NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force as they tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week. The violence was the latest incident as tensions soared over the past week, with Serbia putting the country’s military on high alert and sending more troops to the border with Kosovo, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008. The United States and the European Union have stepped up efforts to help solve the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, fearing further instability in Europe as Russia’s war rages in Ukraine.