Serbs attack US embassy in Belgrade

Serb demonstrators sacked the US embassy in Belgrade tonight at the end of a mass protest against Kosovo’s independence.

No-one was injured as the building was closed and evacuated. But it was not under police guard and protestors smashed their way into the building before starting fires and wrecking furniture.

The Serbs are angry over US support for the new nation of Kosovo and earlier 150,000 people had taken part in a protest rally in the city centre.

They jeered and booed every mention of America and the EU as Tomislav Nikolic of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party accused them of being responsible for the “theft” of Kosovo.

Serbian schools were closed and the state railway company made free trains available to take protesters to the afternoon rally, which organisers said demonstrated Serbia's commitment to holding on to the province of two million people.

More than a dozen nations have recognised Kosovo’s declaration of independence, which was made on Sunday. They include Britain, the United States, France and Germany.

But the declaration has been rejected by Serbia’s government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo.

Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.

There are fears that today’s rally could spark renewed rioting by ultra-nationalists who attacked the US Embassy, McDonald’s restaurants and other Western interests in the capital earlier this week.

Meanwhile several hundred Serbian reservists marched to at the Merdare border checkpoint with Kosovo, threw rocks and burned tires to create a billowing smoke screen then surged past guards.

UN police said the demonstrators, all army veterans who fought on the Serbian side in Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, arrived from the Serbian town of Kursumlija in buses and brought a bulldozer.

Riot police with shields and batons erected a large steel barrier across the road in an attempt to keep them from getting deeper into Kosovo. They later returned to Serbia.

Serbs set fire to another border checkpoint earlier this week.

Critics say the attacks in Belgrade and elsewhere in Serbia could be a prelude to the silencing of the opposition and pro-Western politicians in the Balkan republic, reminiscent of the era when the country was run by Slobodan Milosevic.

His regime also organised giant rallies by bussing in supporters and schoolchildren to demonstrate public support for the wars Serbia waged in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.