Two Serbs Killed in Kosovo Drive-By

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro – A drive-by shooting in Kosovo (search) killed two Serbs and wounded two more, police said, and officials in the troubled U.N.-run province condemned the violence.

Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica (search) blamed the shooting on ethnic Albanians (search), according to the Beta news agency in Belgrade. He also criticized the U.N. mission in Kosovo for failing to protect the province's dwindling Serb minority, Beta reported.

The shooting occurred late Saturday when the four were traveling on the main road toward southern Kosovo, police said Sunday. Another vehicle overtook them and opened fire.

Two of the victims died at the scene, police said.

The United Nations' top official in Kosovo and the province's predominantly ethnic Albanian government condemned the shooting and called on police to quickly find the killers.

"I am shocked and appalled by this senseless and tragic crime," Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, said in a statement.

Jessen-Petersen urged calm in the ethnically troubled province.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and patrolled by NATO since 1999. Ethnic Albanians have demanded outright independence, while Serbs prefer that it remains part of Serbia.

Talks aimed at resolving the status are expected later this year, if Kosovo meets internationally set benchmarks on democracy, human rights and minority rights.

There are some 17,000 NATO-led peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo. They moved into the province following the 1999 war aimed at stopping Serb forces' crackdown on ethnic Albanians.