Turkey plans to send commandos to Kosovo on Sunday and Monday in response to a NATO request to join the alliance’s KFOR peacekeeping force following unrest in the north of the country, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
“Our assigned unit (a commando battalion) is planned to be deployed to … Kosovo on June 4-5,” the ministry said.
A political crisis that has spiraled into violence in Kosovo’s north has intensified since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in the region’s Serb-majority area, which led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina. The majority Serb population had boycotted the April election, allowing ethnic Albanians to be elected.