Serb demonstrators clash with peacekeepers in Kosovo

Hundreds of Serbs swarmed the area, blocking three red-and-white UN police vans as they moved through the angry crowd and ordering the officers to open the doors.

About half of the 53 arrested Serbs went free. The rest were taken out in armored vehicles and were released by the UN after questioning.

Danish military police said they came under fire from protesters and shot back as they evacuated wounded officers. Machine-gun bursts could be heard until midday, although it was not clear who was firing. At least one UN vehicle and one NATO truck were set ablaze.

The UN said later it was pulling out of the Serb-dominated northern half of Mitrovica because of the shooting.

NATO helicopters hovered above the city and NATO troops remained, but the UN withdrawal could fuel a widespread Kosovo Serb desire to split from largely ethnic Albanian Kosovo and rejoin Serbia. The Serb minority dominates about 15 percent of the territory in northern Kosovo, including about a third of Mitrovica, Kosovo's second-largest city.

"We will protect you just like we protect the Serbs in Serbia," Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's government minister for Kosovo, told the protesters.

He urged them to continue protesting with the goal of keeping Kosovo in Serbia. Yesterday's clashes came exactly one month after that Western-backed declaration.

"We will reach the goal only if we are patient, smart and organized and if we believe in what we want to accomplish," Samardzic said in the clearest indication yet that Serbia's government is orchestrating the protests.

Contributors to the NATO force said 27 Polish officers, 15 Ukrainians, and about 20 French soldiers were wounded, with eight French troops taken to hospital. One of the French soldiers suffered head wounds from the explosion of a Molotov cocktail, though none had serious injuries. Authorities did not say how the other peacekeepers were wounded.

Hospital officials said most of the civilians suffered injuries from stun grenades, tear gas, and explosive devices. One struck in the eye by a bullet was in critical condition.