PRISTINA, Kosovo.
BRITISH soldiers killed an attacking Serbian cop yesterday in this tense capital, where NATO forces are in dangerous co-existence with retreating Yugoslav troops.
On the first full day of NATO’s peacekeeping mission in this strife-torn province, five Serbian policemen were also killed by revenge-seeking members of the Kosovo Liberation Army – seriously compounding the problems of U.S. and European troops assigned to restore order.
In Prizren, one of the area’s most hostile zones, German military spokesmen said Serbian paramilitaries and police went on a looting and burning spree in Albanian neighborhoods after nightfall.
German troops there killed one Serb and seriously wounded another after the pair opened fire from a car close to a German checkpoint. A German soldier was slightly wounded in the incident.
In Dulje, 25 miles south of Pristina, two German journalists were killed by unknown attackers.
In Pristina, Kosovar’s capital, tensions began simmering when British tanks roared into the downtown area, where thousands of Yugoslav army troops were still roaming the crowded streets and appeared reluctant to relinquish control until next week’s U.N. Security Council deadline.
Many Serbian soldiers, still heavily armed, cursed the sight of the Union Jacks and defiantly waved their three-finger salutes at the passing tanks.
Their anger over the turn of events in the Balkans war clearly evident.
“I would like to fire my gun, but Milosevic says no,” one Serb told The Post’s translator.
Later in the day, three members of a British paratrooper patrol were accosted on a crowded street by a plainclothes Serbian cop brandishing a pistol.
British military spokesman Capt. Anny Reed said the cop became agitated and belligerent when asked to put down his revolver.
He was killed after he refused to give up his pistol and fired a shot at the British soldiers.
“The soldiers acted robustly and fairly within the rules of engagement. We will enforce the agreement fairly and firmly,” Reed said.
The first violent confrontations between NATO troops and the Serbs followed a day of lingering violence throughout the capital, where sporadic gunfire could be heard and giant plumes of smoke could be seen over scores of burning houses.
The peace agreement signed last week calls for the Serbs to withdraw from Kosovo in 11 days, but NATO got a small taste of how difficult this peace mission will be in a province with centuries of ethnic hatred.
Five Serbian policemen and military officers were reported to have been gunned down in at least three incidents yesterday by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Bahari Jashi, a key KLA official, said, “We will not put down our weapons until every armed Serb leaves Kosovo.”