Serbia denies troop buildup near Kosovo border region

Tensions grew after heavily armed Serbs stormed the Kosovo village of Banjska. Pic/Twitter

Serbia's president on Sunday denied US and other reports of a military buildup along the border with Kosovo, complaining of a "campaign of lies" against his country in the wake of a shootout a week earlier that killed four people and fueled tensions in the volatile Balkan region.

Both the US and the European Union expressed concern earlier this week about what they said was an increased military deployment by Serbia's border with its former province, and they urged Belgrade to scale down its troop presence there.

Kosovo's government said Saturday it was monitoring the movements of the Serbian military from "three different directions." It urged Serbia to immediately pull back its troops and demilitarize the border area.

"A campaign of lies ... has been launched against our Serbia," President Aleksandar Vucic responded in a video post on Instagram. "They have lied a lot about the presence of our military forces .... In fact, they are bothered that Serbia has what they describe as sophisticated weapons."

Tensions soared following the violence in northern Kosovo last Sunday involving heavily armed Serb gunmen and Kosovo police officers. The clash was one of the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

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