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PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Serbs and Albanians clashed in Kosovo on Wednesday in the worst violence since NATO and the United Nations took control of the region in 1999 and up to 14 people were reported killed.
In a severe blow to international hopes of calm ahead of talks this year or next on its future status, the explosion of ethnic hostility in a dozen locations showed that reconciliation of the two communities was still years away.
Clashes were reported from Mitrovica in the north to Urosevac in the south, with U.N. police injured in both places.
The Serbian news agency Beta quoted local police as saying four Serbs were killed in the central town of Lipljan, where Albanian mobs were burning Serb houses and NATO soldiers were trying to evacuate Serb civilians.
United Nations Kosovo police veteran Derek Chappell called it "a very dangerous situation...very large scale." Kosovo Serb politician Momcilo Trajkovic said: "We are back in 1999."
In late evening, hundreds of angry Albanians surrounded a Serb enclave in the capital Pristina, setting U.N. vehicles on fire and stoning Kosovo police who responded by firing rubber bullets. U.S. troops were evacuating Serbs whose apartments were under attack.
Reporters were also evacuated from the U.N. headquarters building as 2,000 Albanians were reported marching to the site.
The Serbian Beta agency reported that U.S. troops in a convoy of 30 armored personnel carriers drove into the central village of Caglavica to evacuate 10 injured NATO peacekeepers following clashes with Albanians attacking the enclave of 1,000 Serbs.
In Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro's Supreme Defense Council was due to meet. An army source said it would discuss raising combat readiness and a possible movement of troops.
Belgrade taxi drivers went on strike and demonstrators gathered outside a government building. But Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica earlier ruled out any military response inside Kosovo -- a move which would trigger a major crisis with NATO.
HOSPITALS IN OVERDRIVE Continued
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