PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Nov
17 (Reuters) - An explosion at a busy vegetable market used by Serbs
and ethnic Albanians in Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo on Thursday
injured at least two people, police said.
A police spokesman said the blast at
10 a.m. (0900 GMT) in the mainly Serb town of Strpce injured one Serb and
one Albanian but that more could have been hurt. The Serb mayor of the
southern town earlier said three Serb boys were being treated, one for
a head injury.
"A suspected explosive device was thrown into the market," a police source told Reuters.
Located at the foot of Kosovo's mountainous border with Macedonia, the Strpce region has seen a rise in attacks on minority Serbs as the province nears negotiations on its future, expected to begin next week.
Legally part of Serbia, the majority Albanian province has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing forced out Serb forces accused of killing 10,000 ethnic Albanians civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.
Kosovo Serbs, many living in isolated enclaves, have become the target of sporadic violence since the war, despite the presence of a 17,000-strong NATO-led peace force.
Serb leaders in Belgrade blame the latest attacks, including the drive-by killing of two Serbs near Strpce in August, on Albanian extremists pushing for independence by force.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is expected to arrive in Kosovo on Monday, kicking off what could be months of shuttle diplomacy aimed at bringing the two sides closer to a deal.
Serbia opposes independence for land it considers the religious heartland of the Serb people. It is offering broad autonomy, but Albanians -- who account for 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people -- reject any return to Serb rule.
Analysts say sporadic bomb blasts and shootings in Kosovo, often targeting U.N. vehicles or facilities, are part of a campaign to warn the U.N. security council against delaying a decision on "final status" or compromising on independence.