***** The New York Times, April 18, 2004 3 Die in Shootout Between U.N. Police in Kosovo By NICHOLAS WOOD
LJUBJLANA, Slovenia, April 17 - Two American women working as prison guards with the United Nations in Kosovo were killed Saturday and 10 other Americans and an Austrian working as prison officers were wounded when a Jordanian, also with the United Nations, opened fire on them, officials said. The attacker was shot and killed.
The attack took place in a prison in the city of Mitrovica, in the north of the province. United Nations officials said the motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.
Some of the wounded were in serious condition, hospital officials said.
The American dead and wounded were among a group of 21 United States prison officers who had arrived in Kosovo on April 7, a United Nations police spokesman said, and they had just completed an induction course at the jail, which is usually used as a pretrial detention center for ordinary crimes.
"They were leaving the detention center in three vehicles after a routine training day, when they came under fire," said Neeraj Singh, a spokesman for the United Nations police service in Kosovo.
He said that at least one Jordanian officer began shooting and that the Americans returned fire, killing him.
"There was no communication between the two groups before the shooting started," Mr. Singh said, dismissing suggestions in the local news media that fighting had erupted as the result of an argument.
Joe Napolitano, the commander of a United Nations police station next to the jail, said the Jordanian had shot at the American group for some time before he was killed.
"He just opened fire on them," Mr. Napolitano said in a telephone interview. "It lasted about 10 minutes."
United Nations peacekeepers and police officers have been working in Kosovo since 1999, after NATO's 78-day bombing campaign to stop forces backed by the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, from driving ethnic Albanians from the province. About 3,500 United Nations police officers are now in Kosovo.
Jordan has a company of around 120 antiriot officers in the region. Their duties including guarding the exterior of the prison; they did not serve as guards inside. The United States has had a lead role in prison administration and staffing in the province.
A statement issued by United Nations mission in Kosovo confirmed the deaths. "As a result of the shooting, three international officers died, including two from the United States and one from Jordan," the statement read. "Eleven other international officers received gunshot wounds and are currently undergoing medical treatment."
Dr. Milan Ivanovic, the director of a hospital in northern Mitrovica where seven of the officers were being treated, said four had suffered serious injuries. "One American woman is in a critical condition," Dr. Ivanovic said in a telephone interview, adding that one of the two American dead had survived until after arriving the hospital.
It is not the first time a Jordanian policeman has opened fire on fellow officers. Early last year in Pristina, a Jordanian officer opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle after an argument, killing another officer and then shooting himself.
Residents contacted by telephone in northern Mitrovica, where the prison is based, said the gunfire could be heard across the city.
It was another blow for the ethnically divided city, which is still recovering from a recent wave of ethnic unrest in which 19 people were killed and more than 800 injured.
The violence began in Mitrovica and spread across the region as ethnic Albanian mobs attacked the province's minority Serb community. More than 4,000 people were displaced from their homes as a result, and more than 500 homes destroyed or damaged, according to United Nations figures. . . .
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/international/europe/18KOSO.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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