Russian Troops Responding to Attack Kill 3 Serbs : Kosovo: Gunmen firing at Albanians were slain when they shot at peacekeepers, officials say. NATO points to Moscow soldiers’ lack of pro-Slav bias.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — Amid a fresh upturn of violence in Kosovo, Russian peacekeeping troops Monday killed three Serbian gunmen who had attacked a car carrying ethnic Albanians, officials of the multinational peacekeeping force in the province said.

One ethnic Albanian was killed and two were wounded when the gunmen opened fire on the car around dawn in a zone of eastern Kosovo patrolled by Russian forces, said Canadian Maj. Roland Lavoie, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force, known as KFOR.

“A Russian quick-reaction force responded to the incident and found the three Serbs at the scene beating two wounded Albanians,” Lavoie said. “The Russian troops ordered the Serbs to stop. The Serbs responded to this order by firing at the Russian troops and, in accordance with KFOR rules of engagement, they returned fire, killing all three Serbs.”

One soldier’s bulletproof vest was hit, but he was not hurt, Lavoie added. The incident was the deadliest involving peacekeepers and civilians since KFOR troops entered Kosovo in mid-June after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 11-week air war against Yugoslavia. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic.

The gunfight Monday has political significance within Kosovo because nearly all ethnic Albanians here have felt that the Russians are biased in favor of the Serbs--fellow Slavs who speak a similar language and with whom they share Orthodox Christian traditions. It could mark a step toward the resolution of such issues as a standoff in the southwestern town of Orahovac, where ethnic Albanian protesters have blockaded roads since Aug. 23 to prevent the deployment of Russian troops assigned to take up duties there.

Western commanders of KFOR have repeatedly stressed that Russian forces have acted professionally and without bias from the time of their arrival, an assessment that appeared to be supported by Monday’s events.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, speaking at a news conference in Pristina, the provincial capital, said the Russians “are doing a professional job in difficult and dangerous circumstances.”

“This incident this morning proves that the Russian troops behave according to the obligations that all KFOR troops have,” he said. “Therefore, they deserve the same respect that KFOR troops from any other country deserve. We have one KFOR, not two KFORs. . . . I think today is the proof of that.”

Monday’s shootout came after a “worrying escalation” of ethnically motivated violence over the weekend, Lavoie said. A Serbian man was killed in a bomb attack on his Pristina apartment Friday night; an ethnic Albanian man was shot to death in his apartment in the southern city of Prizren on Saturday; and there were gun, rocket and mortar attacks in five other locations, Lavoie said.

In other incidents of the past few days, an ethnic Albanian was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at his truck north of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica, and two ethnic Albanians were wounded in a rocket attack on a bus near the southeastern town of Gnjilane.

“The people of Kosovo have to now voice clearly they will not accept the return of terrorism in their own neighborhood, streets and backyards,” Lavoie said.

“Obviously, KFOR will continue to enforce all the security and protection that is humanly possible, in cities, villages and countryside, and especially where minorities live,” Lavoie added. “But we also need the support of the local population. We need information that can help prevent crimes and lead to the arrest of the perpetrators. And we need all people to trust us enough to allow our peace forces to do their job in all the villages, whether they are coming from Britain, Russia or Austria.”