United Nations police in Kosovo are holding four Jordanian members of the force following a gunbattle with US police in which two American women prison officers and a Jordanian male were killed.
"Four Jordanians were detained yesterday after the incident and they are in custody," UN Police Commissioner Stefan Feller told a news conference in the provincial capital, Pristina. "We don't know the motive," he said in response to questions about a report that violent emotions over Iraq was behind the clash.
The Americans involved had arrived less than two weeks ago in Kosovo for a tour of duty with the UN force, Feller said. The Jordanians had been there only a week or so longer.
Police sources at the scene of the firefight inside the UN compound in the northern city of Mitrovica said hostility over Iraq or the Middle East had sparked the fight.
A UN spokesman denied that the shooting had been preceded by a verbal clash. But a US policeman who declined to be named said the attack had been "organised". Whatever the cause, a lethal firefight is unprecedented between two of the 30 or so national contingents of the Kosovo UN law enforcement mission, which numbers some 3,500 officers.
Mr Feller, a German officer, said the shooting began when a convoy of 21 US officers along with an Austrian and two Turks was leaving Mitrovica detention centre in the compound after routine training. He said at least one of five Jordanians opened fire on the convoy and officers from the convoy returned fire.
In the exchange, three officers were killed and 11 others wounded, 10 of whom were Americans including five women. One is in critical condition.