Germany to send 150 soldiers to Kosovo in April -ministry

Germany will send around 150 soldiers to Kosovo in April next year, a spokesperson for the defence ministry said in Berlin on Friday, confirming a report by news magazine Spiegel.
The planned Bundeswehr deployment comes after a deadly gun battle between Kosovo forces and armed Serbs last month fuelled fears of an escalation in the ethnic Serbian-majority region 15 years after Pristina declared independence.
The office of Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed this week to plans by the military to deploy a reinforced Bundeswehr company of around 150 soldiers to Pristina to support the NATO mission Kfor, Spiegel reported citing unnamed sources.
It will relieve an Austrian company based there, according to the report, which said Vienna had asked Berlin to step in some time ago.