Serbs shot dead as 'drunks' defy Nato

Nato ground troops yesterday killed at least two Serbs in the first violent clashes since Operation Joint Guardian was launched to clear Kosovo of the retreating Yugoslav army.

Heavy sniper fire greeted German forces when they entered the southern town of Prizren yesterday as Serbs staged last ditch resistance. The Germans returned fire killing one man and wounding another.

In Pristina, a British paratrooper shot dead an armed Serb, believed to be an off-duty policeman. A German journalist was shot dead and another critically injured when gunmen opened fire in the town of Dulfe, 25 miles south of the Kosova capital. A British army spokesman said it was not clear who was responsible.

The shootings underlined the dangers in Kosovo where some Serb forces resisted the Nato troops.

In the most serious incident, Serb snipers opened fire on German troops as they rolled into Prizren, Kosovo's second city, injuring one soldier in the arm.

The Germans fired back, killing the driver of a car and a passenger. "They're all over the place," one German soldier said of the snipers. "They're drunks with guns and grenades."

British paratroops shot dead the first Serb since the launch of Operation Joint Guardian after the suspected off-duty policeman ignored repeated instructions to drop his gun and fired at the soldiers. A Nato spokesman claimed the man was drunk.

The tense standoff between Nato and Russian troops at Pristina airport entered a second night. Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin agreed that Nato and Russian generals should meet to discuss the problem "military to military and general to general." But General Wesley Clark, Nato's supreme allied commander, said the standoff was a political matter which would have to be resolved by governments.