NATO reduces security presence at key Kosovo Serb sites

NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo said Monday that it was reducing its presence at key security sites -- a Serbian Orthodox monastery and a Mitrovica bridge -- for the first time since the 1990s war.
"The NATO-led KFOR mission has begun the integration of Kosovo Police personnel into KFOR's security architecture at the Visoki Decani Monastery," the mission said. "KFOR remains the first responder for the security of Visoki Decani," the statement added. KFOR also confirmed it was beginning a "gradual transition of its permanent presence" at a bridge between Mitrovica's Albanian and Serb areas. The 1998-1999 war pitted independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas against Serbian forces. More than 13,000 people were killed, with the war ending only after a US-led NATO bombing campaign. (ANSA-AFP).