a strong burst occurred on Friday night in a key canal for Kosovo’s water and electricity supplyapparently without causing casualties, although there were water and electricity supply outages that could extend throughout this Saturday.
After the event, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, accused the Serbian government of being behind the explosion. “This is a criminal and terrorist attack, intended to damage our critical infrastructure, perhaps the most important we have,” he said at a press conference late on Friday.
The explosion caused unspecified damage to the Ibër-Lepenci canal in the northern town of Zubin Potok, which supplies water to two coal-fired power plants that generate almost all the electricity consumed by Kosovo’s 1.5 million people. “We believe (the attack) comes from bands orchestrated and directed by Serbia“added the head of the Government, quoted by the Koha newspaper of Pristina, the country’s capital.
Kurti claimed that “professionals” placed large quantities of explosives at several key points in the hydrosystem channel, where repair is difficult. “Without a doubt it has been an attempt to endanger the supply of electricity and water in our country,” he stressed. The prime minister said he planned to meet immediately after the press conference with the commander of KFOR (NATO forces for Kosovo).
For their part, the ambassadors of the European Union (EU) and the United States in Kosovo have already condemned the attack. “I condemn the serious incident that caused damage to the water canal in Zubin Potok, which is depriving important parts of Kosovo of water supplies,” wrote the head of the EU diplomatic mission in Kosovo, Aivo Orav, in a statement published on social network X and in which he requests an investigation into what happened.
SErbia does not recognize Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence in 2008.
