PRISTINA (AFP) — Orders went out Saturday to beef up security around key officials in Kosovo, after what the government called a night-time "direct attack" on the home of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.
One intruder was wounded after a shoot-out with security guards at Thaci's residence in the Arberia district of the capital Pristina, where many diplomatic missions are located, police said.
The incident, late Friday night, came nearly four months after Thaci's government declared Kosovo and its predominantly ethnic Albanian population independent from Serbia -- a move hotly contested by Belgrade.
Thaci, 40, a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought Serbian security forces in the 1990s, was not at home at the time, and other members of his family who were inside were unharmed.
But the incident was serious enough to constitute a criminal act, said Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci.
"It was a direct attack on the prime minister and his family," Kuci told reporters.
"As a consequence, the government has ordered security measures to be stepped up for many government officials."
A defiant Thaci told the press in the afternoon: "Nobody can threaten the independence, democratic order, freedom and security of the people of the Republic of Kosovo."
"I ask the people to continue to peacefully contribute to the construction of their new state," he said, adding that "political forces must concentrate on the priorities of building the state."
In a statement that offered no possible motive, police said security guards at Thaci's home spotted intruders on a second-floor balcony around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) Friday, "trying to get in" to the building.
"After a warning by the security guards, there was an exchange of fire and the attackers left the scene," it said.
"According to a preliminary investigation of the scene, it is suspected that one of the attackers was wounded."
Kosovo television carried images of the balcony on which apparent blood stains could be seen.
Kosovo technically remains under United Nations administration, nine years after control of the province -- if not sovereignty -- was wrested from the then Yugoslavia by NATO air strikes.
The small, landlocked province -- strategically located at the crossroads of the Balkans -- had seen sometimes brutal repression of ethnic Albanians by Serbian security forces under late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
When negotiations over its future status proved fruitless, Thaci's government -- with the support of the United States and several EU member states -- declared Kosovo's independence.
Serbia, which covets Kosovo as the birthplace of Serbian Orthodox religion and culture, dismissed the action as illegal -- a stance backed by Russia, its main ally on the world stage.
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