Serbia riots over Kosovo independence

PanARMENIAN.Net - Police on Friday guarded the U.S. and other Western embassies damaged in massive rioting overnight in the Serbian capital in which one person died and 100 were injured.



The streets were cleared of debris amid the morning rush-hour traffic.



Rioters broke into the U.S. mission Thursday night and set fire to offices and to police guardhouses on the sidewalk in front of the building. The nearby Croatian embassy was also attacked, and a residential building next door was damaged by flames.



Firemen put out the blazes and found a charred body inside the U.S. mission's consular section. Media reports said the body may have been that of the rioters who set had fire to the office.



After breaking up the protests, riot police fought running battles in the capital's downtown area against bands of hooligans who looted dozens of shops following a state-sponsored demonstration against Kosovo's independence in which nearly 200,000 people took part.



Belgrade's medical emergency center said 96 people - a third of them policemen - had been treated for light injuries sustained during the night. There were more than 100 arrests, police said.



On Friday, a McDonalds restaurant in the city center was still smoldering from the fire that torched much of the interior.



Shops were putting up plastic sheeting and glass panels to cover their smashed front windows. Several sports goods stores and other shops had been cleaned out by looters leaving display windows completely bare.



Streets were swept clean of debris in the early morning, and maintenance crews were repairing smashed traffic lights along the main avenues.



Many of the undamaged stores had hung Serbian flags and pasted signs reading "Kosovo is Serbia" on their front windows.



The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously condemned "in the strongest terms the mob attacks against embassies in Belgrade" and said that it welcomed the steps taken by the Serbian authorities to restore order and protect diplomatic property and personnel.



The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said earlier Thursday he was "outraged" by the attack, the AP reports.



More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence, 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.