Kosovo president's house attacked

A hand grenade lobbed at the residence of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian President Ibrahim Rugova early yesterday shattered windows but caused no injuries, officials said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi denounced it as "terrorist attack", coming less than a week after an explosive device was found outside UN headquarters in the provincial capital Pristina.

He said in a statement it was aimed at destabilising UN-run Kosovo, whose majority Albanians want independence from Serbia, and thwarting the process towards a final status decision.

Mr Rugova, who led passive resistance by Kosovo's Albanians against Serbian rule in the 1990s, was at home with his family when the grenade was thrown from a car driving by the walled villa in Pristina, police said.

It was the first such attack against the 59-year-old Rugova, whose pacifism was rejected by militant Albanians in favour of armed struggle against Belgrade in the late 1990s.

"The front of the house of President Rugova was damaged. There were no injuries," a police spokesman told Reuters, adding the grenade exploded in the yard.

There was no immediate word on who might have been behind the attack on the residence, located on a hill on the outskirts of the provincial capital of roughly 500,000 people.