Clashes broke out between armed men and authorities in northern Kosovo this Sunday, hours after a police officer was killed when a patrol was hit by an ambush with firearms and explosives, according to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

Kurti said at least 30 heavily armed gunmen had now been surrounded by authorities near Banjska, northern Kosovo, and called for their surrender.

“There are at least thirty armed professionals, military or police officers who are surrounded by our police forces and whom I invite to hand themselves over to our security services,” Kurti said at a press conference.

Kurti added that the group was located in and around a monastery near the village of Banjska, where the police patrol was ambushed on Sunday morning.

The Serbian Orthodox Church confirmed that armed men stormed a monastery in Banjska, where pilgrims from the city of Novi Sad, in northern Serbia, were staying.

“We can see armed and uniformed people… they are shooting at us and we are responding,” a Kosovo police officer, Veton Elshan, told AFP by phone from Banjska.

Kurti’s comments came hours after he called the ambush an act of terror and blamed the Serbian government.

“Organized crime with political, financial and logistical support from the authorities in Belgrade is attacking our country,” Kurti wrote on social media.

Serbian state media outlet RTS later reported that the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo were closed.

Tensions

The incident comes more than a week after talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo aimed at improving ties failed to make progress during EU-mediated talks in Brussels.

The EU has been trying for years to find a solution to the long-running dispute between its Balkan neighbors, which has soured relations since the war more than two decades ago.

Brussels believed it had broken the impasse by drawing up a plan to normalize relations in March, but minimal progress has been made since then.

The diplomatic standoff comes as tensions in Kosovo’s restive north have been simmering for months, following the Pristina government’s decision in May to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities.

This move led to one of the worst outbreaks of unrest in recent years. Demonstrations followed, as did the arrest of three Kosovo police officers by Serbia and a violent riot by Serbian demonstrators, in which more than thirty NATO peacekeepers were injured.

Kosovo is still overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Albanians, but in the northern parts of the territory, close to the border with Serbia, ethnic Serbs still form the majority in several municipalities.

The dispute in the north is just the latest in a long line of incidents that have rocked the area since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It comes almost a decade after NATO forces helped drive Serb forces out of the former province during a bloody war that has killed around 13,000 people.

Belgrade – along with its main allies China and Russia – refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence, effectively depriving the country of a seat in the United Nations.

During a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the West of hypocrisy. He said the recognition of Kosovo’s independence was based on the same justification Russia gave for the war against Ukraine.