Posted on 02/21/2008 11:04:42 AM PST by 11th_VA
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy Thursday and set fire to an office after a massive protest against Kosovo's independence that drew an estimated 150,000 people.
Masked attackers broke into the building, which has been closed this week, and tried to throw furniture from an office. A blaze broke out inside one of the offices and parts of the facade also caught fire.
Authorities drove armored jeeps down the street and fired tear gas to clear the crowd. The protesters dispersed into side streets where they continued clashing with authorities.
The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group of protesters.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack strongly urged the Serbian government to protect the U.S. Embassy. He said the U.S. ambassador was at his home and was in contact with U.S. officials.
More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
But the declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has been rejected by Serbia's government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo. Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Belgrade's control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and KFOR, a multiethnic force, policing the province.
But Serbia — and Kosovo's Serbs, who make up less than 10 percent of Kosovo's population — refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory considered the ancient cradle of Serbs' state and religion.
Earlier Thursday, police estimated that about 150,000 people had attended a rally in the Serbian capital. The crowd waved Serbian flags and carried signs reading "Stop USA terror." One group set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
The U.S. embassy in Belgrade burns after masked attackers broke into the building and set an office on fire at the end of a massive protest against Western-backed Kosovo independence, in the Serbian capital, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. More than 150,000 Serbs gathered at the rally vowing to retake the territory which is viewed as Serbia's religious and national heartland. (AP Photo)
Your true colors have been exposed, Gilman.
The Serbs were no better than the Nazis in massacring innocent people. Serbia needs to grow up and recognize its crimes.
“At least we don’t commit genocide and have rape rooms like the Serbs did...”
But Kosovar rape rooms are alright?
So when Hitler invaded Poland non-nazis still should have cheered him on?
Bush the idiot has broken international law and created dreadful precedence that will come back at us again and again.
Now he should be impeached, not cheered.
Time for you to start paying attention.
I don't believe that Bill Clinton is a member of the current administration that just recognized Kosovo's Independence.
There were massacres perpetrated by both sides, but most likely not in the numbers promoted by the media during runup to the NATO bombing campaign.
Austria was an invading conquerer.
Thanks - that was a concise and worthy post.
I wonder how long until we are killing these Christian Serbs who want their country back instead of letting the two sides fight it out?
The White House was the official rape room of the Clinton presidency.
... and George W. Bush, and the US State Department.
Clinton may have begun the US role in this mess, but it's been carried on well past his influence and even made worse now by Bush's administration.
I agree.
Let azltan(spel?) slice off a piece of the US and see how Americans would react over that. Maybe they would have a little empathy on how the Serbs feel.
I cant blame them at all. I certainly would be on their side if I were there.
Do you think the "blood tax" had anything to do with it?
How dare them for not siding with fascist communist Serbia!
The Serbs did fight on our side against the Nazis.
Oh look, RINO jihadi monkey to the rescue.
An AP writer who fails to mention the ETHNIC CLEANSING done by the moslems. Fails to mention the church burned.
You are ignorant.
There was a Finnish team from the UN who utterly discredited all the MSM lies about the Serbs. The Serbs were the victims and Clinton bombed their hospitals and elementary schools while they were full of people.
The Kosavars only fled when the NATO bombing began. Their leaders drove them straight into the path of the bombing.
You probably think Bill Clinton was impeached over an affair with a fat chick.
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