Peacekeeper killed in Kosovo

KFOR peacekeepers have regularly come under fire

PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- A Russian soldier on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo has been killed while on patrol, a KFOR spokesman said.

Russian peacekeepers came under fire on Wednesday in Yugoslavia's troubled Kosovo province near the Serbian border, Russia's RIA new agency reported.

Lieutenant General Yevgeny Barmyantsev, Moscow's military attache in the Serbian capital Belgrade, told RIA the serviceman was shot in the head and died on the way to a hospital at Camp Bondsteel, the U.S. KFOR base in southeastern Kosovo.

AUDIO KFOR spokesman Major Axel Jandesek: Incident is under investigation 383kb/35secs. AIFF or WAV sound

A KFOR spokesman said the solider was killed during an operation to mark out the province's northeastern boundary with Serbia near the village of Zuja.

"The Russian KFOR soldier was shot by an unidentified source while outside a BTR-80 armoured personnel carrier," KFOR spokesman Axel Jandesek said.

U.S. officers said earlier in the week that KFOR had begun marking the boundary every 50 metres in preparation for the re-entry of Serbian security forces into a post-war buffer strip where ethnic Albanian guerrillas have been operating.

ALSO U.S. joins Balkans peace mission

Russian troops are part of a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force deployed in the province, which is populated mainly by ethnic Albanians who want independence from Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia.

There has been concern in Europe that Washington could unilaterally cut its commitments in the Balkans.

But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell renewed a pledge on Wednesday that the U.S. would remain committed to the Balkans.

He said after Bush's election victory U.S. troops entered Bosnia and Kosovo with their NATO allies and they would come out together.

Powell is to visit the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo -- which remains part of federal Yugoslavia.

In Macedonia, Powell is expected to show support for the Macedonian Government and is due to meet Macedonia's Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi.

He will then travel to Kosovo where he is expected to encourage the majority of the Albanian population to pursue peaceful means to achieve their political aspirations.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Kosovo border crossing re-opens
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U.N. probes Kosovo shelling
March 30, 2001
Serbs say Presevo truce broken
March 27, 2001
Presevo peace talks
March 23, 2001

NATO
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
U.N. in Kosovo

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