British soldier dies after being shot in Kosovo "in front of a partially built Christian Church"

AFP via Yahoo! News ^ | Tuesday December 18, 6:18 AM | AFP

[Pericles]

Tuesday December 18, 6:18 AM

British soldier dies after being shot in Kosovo

A British soldier with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, died after being shot in the Yugoslav province's main city of Pristina, a KFOR spokesman said.

The spokesman, Captain Ollie Major, said: "A British soldier was injured as a result of a gunshot wound. The soldier later died."

Major said the soldier had been on duty in front of a partially built Christian Orthodox church when he was shot.

He did not give further details and did not name the soldier.

Unrest between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, most of whom are Muslim, and its Serbian minority, mostly Orthodox, has dogged the UN mission there since it took over the administration in mid-1999.

Serbian forces had been forced out of Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes launched to protect the oppressed ethnic Albanians.

[Pericles]

Kfor soldier shot in Kosovo "accident" - (was it really KLA ?) Published: Dec 15th, 2001 A German soldier serving with the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo was killed on Saturday in a shooting accident, the German army said in a statement. The exact circumstances of the accident had yet to be explained, the statement said.

[Balto_Boy]

More here.

[Pericles]

Add this to killing to your list of KFOR dead, vooch. I guess NATO could not call this killing an accident.

NATO wanst to get al-Qaeda? Then they should go after the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. Oh wait I forgot, the KLA is our ally. The US served as the KLA's private airforce against Yugoslavia did it not?

Snow is falling in the Kacanik Valley...............

[longleaf]

Serbian forces had been forced out of Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes launched to protect the oppressed ethnic Albanians.

Yeah, we sure didn't want those poor Muslims to feel oppressed while they were busy planning terrorist attacks for bin Laden.

[dennisw]

Psycho killer of the Jihad.

[Red Jones]

I surmise that they've destroyed almost every church in Kosovo since our war, this church was under construction to replace a destroyed one, the KFOR soldier was put there to protect it and then was killed for it. Now, will KFOR put more soldiers out in front of that church?

If we had any integrity we'd put troops back there and do it in such a way as to anticipate another attack and simply kill whoever attacks. Unfortunately, as you say Pericles, the evidence is that the KLA are our allies, so we don't do as we should.

[Fusion]

Who was this British thug to carry a gun in Kosovo without a permit from the Kosovo Liberation Army? Did he believe he was on a football holiday, where he and his drunken hooligan mates would be cracking a few heads like the much vaunted paras do in Northern Ireland against unarmed civilians? Alas, if so, he was mistaken -- and like Sapper Collins has departed this earth for a much better place...

The so called British "army" was put in its place during their recent brief occupation of Slavic Macedonia. The Brits were warned against entering the sovereign state of the Tetovo Republic and they wisely backed down despite their big talk in the tabloids. KLA/UCK forces with their number -- just as earlier this year when they took down a Brit chopper and armoured vehicle...

The Brits will stand down or they will be hammered by the veteran fighters of the KLA and the skilled terminators of K-6. Like the young Hun over the weekend, this British "warrior" has died for nothing but the dreams of empire of the madman Tony Blair...

British troops stationed around the world from Kosovo to Oman -- and even once again in Afghanistan despite the harsh lessons of the days of Elphey Bey. Yet the armchair general Tony Blair overlooks protecting his vulnerable homeland. Who will protect the Brits when Islamic entente gunmen storm London with shattering explosions and suicide squads of automatic weapon, grenade throwing jihadists?

Unlike their American cousins, the Brit sheep unarmed and quite vulnerable now. Hundreds of Islamic militants await only the green light for a general uprising -- yet the British army is in Kosovo, and being killed there...

Dry is good and wind is better...

The Brits should not be laughing now... (tick tock)

The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.

[Dustbunny]

I have some really strong thoughts on this. Unprintable thoughts.

[Poohbah]

Personally, I think we should just exterminate EVERYONE in the Balkans and announce a new land rush. There are exactly ZERO good guys in the region.

[Pericles]

These are some of my thoughts on this. Already printed.

[bob808]

Major said the soldier had been on duty in front of a partially built Christian Orthodox church when he was shot.

Interesting choice of words. Note the author didn't say partially re-built. There is always an effort to distance any association of violence and destruction from Clinton's wonderful allies, the KLA Albanians.

Yesterday, a German; today a Brit. Info regarding both is very hush-hush. Hmmm, are some bin-Laden sympathizers trying to open a Balkan front?

[DCBurgess58]

If our brave British allies are subjected to the onslaught which you seem to yearn for, I am certain that the attackers will soon find that they have bitten off far more than they can chew (not to mention we will help the Brits to wipe out your buddies). I am a DoD contractor who is married to a Brit. I have lived and worked for several years on and off on oversea British military posts. I have many great freinds in both the Royal Air Force and the Army. I can't say that I am a fan of Tony Blair (I'm not) or the loud obnoxious British press. I will say this however, the Brits are tried and true freinds of the American people, whilst the idiots in the IRA and KLA are some of the lowest scum of the earth. You're one of them... what a pathetic loser you are Fusion!

[Gael]

Now, now, Poohbah. There are good guys there. The Serbs just faced their version of 9/11 a few years too soon. If Alija was trying to establish his Islamist Bosnian state today instead of in 1992, or the KLA was embarking on its campaign of assassinating Serb civilians and Albanian "traitors" today instead of in 1998, don't you think the Serbs would be welcomed as allies in the war on Islamist terror?

[Enlightiator]

Your posts are always good for a laugh. Your comment "The Brits will stand down or they will be hammered by the veteran fighters of the KLA and the skilled terminators of K-6" was particulary silly. There's a big difference between a "skilled terminator" and a gutsnipe who shoots a lone soldier guarding a church. The damage is to Islam, however. This is the beginning of the end for Muslim extremists cowards.

[joan]

"Interesting choice of words. Note the author didn't say partially re-built. There is always an effort to distance any association of violence and destruction from Clinton's wonderful allies, the KLA Albanians."

Actually, I think the words are correct. I don't think there's been any (or hardly any) rebuilding of Orthodox churces in Kosovo.

I'd bet this is a church that was probably being built before the war, and has been frozen in its half-built state for three years.

I seem to remember an article by Tim Judah (who seems to hate the Serbs) about British sort of camping out within a half-built Orthodox Church & watching some popular British TV program there. Perhaps this was the very same church he was describing. It almost seemed to me that Tim Judah enjoyed seeing the church being used that way.

[colette_g]

An update on what happened here

The important lines being "

Head wounds

Mr Hain later told the BBC's Newsnight: "Obviously this is a tragedy for his family and for him clearly, but it doesn't appear to have been as a result of a hostile act.

"He died as a result of wounds to the head but it wasn't in action or from a sniper."

"

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[TopQuark]

spokesman Captain Ollie Major Poor will never get a promotion: in the British army, one's rank must never be higher than his surname.

[Poohbah]

Uh-huh...and the Serbs are NOT the sort of people we like, either. Back when they thought they were winning, the did the same sort of stuff to the Croats and the Muslims. The only difference between the Croats, Serbs, and Muslims over there is that they all wear different funny-looking headgear.

Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out.