Tensions rise at Kosovo border as number plate row escalates

Behind a seemingly minor dispute, the long unresolved enmity with Serbia simmers

At an abandoned petrol station, half a mile from Kosovo's Jarinje border checkpoint with Serbia, a giant Serbian flag had been laid out on the roof. In the former forecourt, a group of young people sat on upturned beer crates, sharing bottles of water and homemade rakija in small plastic cups. This is our squad, our special forces," one joked, as four tall, muscular men walked over to join them.

The mountain road next to them, flanked on either side by groups of protesters around tents and smouldering campfires, had been well and truly blocked by the men's heavily laden trucks.