Kosovo Police Deny 'Fire Ball' Launched at Serbia

Kosovo Police on the morning of August 24 denied reports by part of the Serbian media claiming that a so called fire ball, an incendiary device described in several articles as intended to start a wildfire, had been launched from Kosovo territory toward central Serbia. In a statement issued that morning, Kosovo Police described the claims as disinformation and inaccurate, adding that it has no information that its units observed anything of the kind being launched from Kosovo territory into Serbia.

According to the available reports, the claim was first published by Informer, and by 2:17 PM on August 23 it had already been picked up by Kurir, along with a photograph and a video said to show the device flying toward central Serbian territory. Other outlets carried the same claim.

What Serbian media claim exactly

According to those reports, the device was found in the village of Brnjak, and the intent behind throwing it was to start a fire. The reports say the Police Directorate in Novi Pazar was notified, along with on duty prosecutor Sanja Mrljes, who ordered an on site investigation. The same articles state that there were no consequences and that no fire actually broke out.

None of the available reports, however, cite an official source on the Kosovo side confirming that the device was in fact launched from that territory, nor do they specify who supplied the photograph and video to the media, or when.

Kosovo Police’s response

In its statement of August 24, Kosovo Police dismissed the claims as part of a broader pattern of disinformation it says originates in Serbia. The statement read:

“No such weapon has been used by the authorities of the Republic of Kosovo, and there is no information that units of the Kosovo Police observed anything of the kind being launched from the territory of the Republic of Kosovo into the territory of Serbia.”

Alongside the denial, Kosovo Police said its border police continuously patrol the border area, with some of those patrols carried out jointly with KFOR units. The police also said it would investigate any fire found to have been caused by human action, regardless of where it occurred.

Two sources, two conflicting claims

The core of the dispute is straightforward: Serbian tabloids claim the device was launched from Kosovo and point to the video and the location, Brnjak, as evidence, while Kosovo Police says its units registered nothing of the sort and that there is no confirmed information about such a launch from its territory. Neither side has yet published the findings of the on site investigation that, according to Serbian media, prosecutor Mrljes ordered.

The dispute unfolded on the same days that, according to earlier reports, around twenty five fires were burning simultaneously across Serbia, including fires at Stolovi near Kraljevo and in the Deliblatska Pescara reserve. Against that backdrop, any new report of a possible deliberate fire carries extra weight, regardless of whether it is later confirmed or disproven.

The report on Kosovo Police’s denial was published by Radio KIM and signed by journalist Zorica Vorgucic. As of this writing, there was no publicly available statement from the Police Directorate in Novi Pazar on the outcome of the investigation ordered by prosecutor Sanja Mrljes, leaving open whether the Serbian side will respond to Kosovo Police’s denial, and whether the investigation’s findings will bear out either of the two conflicting claims.