Serbia denies link to Kosovo canal blast amid heightened tensions

BELGRADE: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday denied his country had staged an attack on a strategic canal in neighbouring Kosovo that has reignited tensions between the two.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has accused Serbia of masterminding what he called a “terrorist attack” on Friday on the waterway near Zubin Potok, an area of Kosovo´s volatile north dominated by ethnic Serbs.

The blast damaged a canal supplying water to hundreds of thousands of people and cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo´s electricity. Vucic fired back in an address to the nation on Sunday, saying the incident and the Kosovo accusations were “an attempt at a large and ferocious hybrid attack” on Serbia itself.

Belgrade´s Kosovo office said the strike gave the Pristina government an excuse to crack down on ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. “We have no connection with it,” Vucic said of the attack.