Report: BND Knew of Kosovo Attacks

The German government denied Friday that the country's BND foreign intelligence agency had kept relevant information from German peacekeeping forces in Kosovo when ethnic strife broke out there in March. On Thursday night, German TV broadcaster ZDF reported that three weeks before the March 17 and 18 attacks, which left 19 dead and 1,000 injured, the BND had listened in on a conversation in which an Islamist fundamentalist organized Kosovo Albanian attacks on the Serbian minority. ZDF said the man had been a paid informant for the BND. German government spokesman Bela Anda rejected ZDF's allegations, adding that the government could not publicly respond to questions until after it reported to parliament on the matter. The German KFOR peacekeepers have been accused of being unprepared and reacting too slowly to the violence.