Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement

PRISTINA: Kosovo stepped up se curity measures around “critical” infrastructure Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, as neighbouring Serbia rejected ac cusations it had staged the blast. The explosion occurred Friday near the town of Zubin Potok in a Serb-dominated area in Kosovo´s troubled north, damaging the canal supplying water to cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo’s electricity. Visiting the site on Saturday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that police had arrested several people in connection with the attack. Law enforcement “carried out searches” and “collected testi mony and evidence, and the crimi nals and terrorists will have to face justice and the law,” he said. The arrests follow a security meet ing late Friday, when Kurti pointed blame at Serbia. “The at tack was carried out by profes sionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia,” he told a press conference, without pro viding evidence. The government later issued a statement echoing his allegations, saying that “initial indications suggest” the explosion had been “orchestrated by the Ser bian state, which has the capacity to carry out such a criminal and terrorist attack”. Serbian Presi dent Aleksandar Vucic hit back Saturday, denying the “irresponsi ble” and “baseless accusations”. “Such unfounded claims are aimed to tarnish Serbia´s reputation, as well as to undermine efforts to promote peace and stability in the region,” he said in a statement to AFP. Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric had earlier sug gested on X that the Kosovar “regime” could itself be behind the blast, and called for an interna tional investigation. The main po litical party representing Serbs in Kosovo, Serb List, also con demned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”. AFP journalists at the scene saw water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital, Pristina, and also supplies drinking water. However, electricity supplies to consumers were running smoothly on Saturday morning, with authori ties having found an alternative method to cool the plants, said Kosovo´s Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli. Repair work was ongo ing, authorities said, while Kurti confirmed workers had managed to restore water flows to 25 per cent capacity. The United States strongly con demned the “attack on critical in frastructure in Kosovo”, the US em bassy in Pristina said in a statement on Facebook. “We are monitoring the situation closely... and have offered our full support to the government of Kosovo to en sure that those responsible for this criminal attack are identified and held accountable.” Turkey´s for eign ministry also condemned the attack, adding: “We call on all par ties to exercise restraint to avoid escalation in the region.” The NATO-led KFOR peace keeping mission for Kosovo joined the calls for restraint, saying in a statement: “It is important that facts are established and that those responsible are held accountable and brought to justice.”