(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo’s prime minister Albin Kurti said an explosion late Friday night that damaged a key water canal was a “terrorist act” and accused groups aligned with Serbia of having been behind it — an accusation Serbia called baseless.
Kosovo’s interior minister, Xhelal Svecla, announced the arrest of eight people linked to the explosion and said police seized a large cache of weapons and military equipment during the operation. He said the searches were carried out at ten locations in northern Kosovo.
The searches “to the confiscation of arms, explosives, hundreds of uniforms, and other military gear, which will serve as evidence in criminal proceedings,” he said during a press conference on Saturday evening.
The blast in the Zubin Potok municipality of northern Kosovo damaged a canal that carries drinking water to several regions as well as cooling water for the country’s thermal power plants.
The incident raised concerns about potential disruptions to essential services, including water and electricity. Local media showed photographs of water leaking from the reinforced canal.
“The attack was carried out by professionals, and we believe it comes from groups orchestrated by and directed by Serbia,” Kurti said in the Kosovan capital of Pristina at an emergency press conference after midnight.
Kurti said Serbian operatives have the “capacity to carry out such attacks using large quantities of explosives,” without offering specific evidence.
Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric fired back against “premature accusations” in a lengthy post on X, saying the blast may have been “a deliberate diversion” orchestrated by Kosovo’s government. He offered financial and technical support to help repair the canal, which is vital to Serb-populated municipalities of Kosovo.
Aleksandr Vucic, Serbia’s president, said in Belgrade on Saturday that his country had nothing to do with the incident “and Pristina knows that.”
Kosovo’s National Security Council convened an emergency meeting to approve additional security measures for critical infrastructure.
Jeff Hovenier, US ambassador to the Balkan nation, and other diplomatic missions, including France and the EU, also condemned what they called an attack. The US is closely monitoring the situation and supports a full investigation, Hovenier said.
The incident follows a series of grenade attacks in northern Kosovo targeting police stations and government buildings.
Serbian List, the political party in Kosovo that represents the minority Serb population and is backed by Belgrade, also condemned the explosion, calling it a threat to the water supply of Serb residents in northern Kosovo.
(Updates with the number of arrests in the second paragraph, Vucic comment in eighth paragraph.)
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