Serbian troops on Kosovo border in state of ‘combat readiness’

Serbia has placed its security forces on the border with Kosovo in a “full state of combat readiness”, senior officials have said, amid increasingly strained relations with its neighbour and despite calls by the European Union and NATO for tensions to ease between the once wartime foes.

“Serbia’s president … ordered the Serbian army to be on the highest level of combat readiness, that is to the level of the use of armed force,” Serbia’s Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said in a statement late on Monday.