Tension soars as main Kosovo border crossing with Serbia closed

Kosovo's biggest border crossing with Serbia was closed on Wednesday as months of tensions again flared, prompting Washington and Brussels to urge an immediate de-escalation of tensions. 

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to recognise it and encouraged Kosovo's 120,000 ethnic Serbs to defy Pristina's authority - especially in the north where ethnic Serbs make up the majority. 

The latest trouble erupted on December 10, when ethnic Serbs put up barricades to protest the arrest of an ex-policeman suspected of being involved in attacks against ethnic Albanian police officers - effectively sealing off traffic on two border crossings.

After the roadblocks were erected, Kosovar police and international peacekeepers were attacked in several shooting incidents, while the Serbian armed forces were put on heightened alert this week.

But a Pristina court ordered Wednesday that the former police officer, Dejan Pantic, be released from prison and placed under house arrest, a spokeswoman said.

The move could hint at a calming of the situation as ethnic Serbs cited his arrest as the main reason for erecting the barricades.

Late Tuesday, dozens of...