PRISTINA -- Monday -- Eight US corrections officers wounded in a shootout with a Jordanian UN policeman have been moved to a US military base in Kosovo for treatment, a US military spokesman said today. One officer remained in critical condition following brain surgery in neighbouring Macedonia, said KFOR spokesman Michael Houk. The wounded officers were moved to the military hospital of Camp Bondsteel, the main US base in Kosovo.
Top UN officials visited the wounded as investigators searched for evidence and interviewed witnesses in an attempt to understand why the Jordanian, a UN police officer, fatally shot two US correctional officers in Kosovo and wounded several others. The Jordanian officer died in the shootout Saturday at the prison compound in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica. During the 10-minute gunfight, 10 Americans and one Austrian were wounded. The Austrian officer was flown home last night for treatment.
The attack shook the UN mission, which already was in turmoil following violent ethnic clashes last month between ethnic Albanians and Serbs that killed 19 and injured more than 900. "The shooting struck a huge blow at the very idea of peacekeeping," said Alex Anderson, the Kosovo project director of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization that monitors the Balkans. The officers were part of the UN mission which has administered Kosovo and provided security since June 1999.
"This is a sad day for United Nations peacekeeping," said Stefan Feller, the head of the UN police in Kosovo. "At this stage there can be no conclusions on the reason for the shooting." However, a US police officer serving with the UN mission in Kosovo told The Associated Press that the shooting was "clearly an attack against Americans." The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.
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The gun battle began as three UN vehicles carrying 21 US correctional officers, two Turkish officers and one Austrian were leaving the prison, which was guarded by five Jordanian special police unit officers, officials said. The correctional officers, who arrived in Kosovo just 10 days ago, had been training at the prison. At least one Jordanian officer, identified by Jordan's government only as Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali, started firing at the convoy, Feller said.
The attacked officers returned fire, and a 10-minute gunfight ensued. The two dead US officers were women, he added. Their names weren't released pending notification of their families. The four other Jordanian police officers at the prison were detained, officials said. Authorities have requested that the diplomatic immunity of the Jordanian officers be lifted so that they can be interrogated. Officials denied rumours that a quarrel about the war in Iraq had sparked the gun battle. "As far as we know, there was no communication between the officer who fired and the group of victims," said Neeraj Singh, a UN spokesman.
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Jordan's government expressed regret for the shootings and said it was following up on the investigation to uncover details of what had taken place, a statement carried by the official Jordanian Petra agency said. The 3,500-strong UN police force includes 450 US officers, most of whom work for DynCorp, a private company that trains police, corrections and judicial officers who work in places such as Kosovo and Iraq. The UN police force works alongside 6,000 local police officers.
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