The Associated Press
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000; 9:58 a.m. EDT

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia –– About 50 people attacked a U.N. bus carrying 22 Serb police officers and translators Wednesday in the Serb part of the divided northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica, U.N. police said.

The crowd threw stones at the bus, breaking windows and slightly injuring three of the 12 officers, who are from the newly formed Kosovo Police Service. The attack happened as the bus drove near the main bridge over the Ibar River, which divides the city into an ethnic Albanian southern sector and a Serb northern part.

The Kosovo Police Service was set up by U.N. police officers, who trained new recruits from the local population to police their areas.

Although Serbs were initially reluctant to work with U.N. police and join the force, the KPS now includes both ethnic Albanians and Serbs. But the two sides are unable to police areas of a different ethnicity. Serb officers operate within Serb enclaves around the province.

Targeted by ethnic Albanians seeking revenge after years of repression, tens of thousands of Serbs have fled Kosovo since the end of NATO's 78-day bombing campaign last year. Those who remain live in enclaves protected by NATO-led peacekeepers but are still targets of violent attacks.

On Wednesday, the body of a Serb shepherd with multiple gunshot wounds was found in the hills near the eastern Kosovo village of Verbestica, U.N. police said.

Spent bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle were found nearby, police said. Authorities believe the man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed recently.

In an unrelated development, Russian and French peacekeepers seized weapons and explosives following a search of several ethnic Albanian and Serb houses in northern Kosovo. The find included three pounds of TNT explosives, several thousand rounds of ammunition, three mortar shells, two machine guns and three pistols, as well as an anti-personnel mine.