No comment from Germany over Kosovo spy reports

Are they German intelligence officers?

Press reports have sparked speculation about three men arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at a European Union building in Kosovo.

The trio, who have appeared in court in Pristina, are German nationals. But Berlin has declined to comment on claims first made in the weekly Der Spiegel that they work for Germany’s secret service.

The blast at the office of the EU’s special representative in Kosovo caused material damage but no-one was injured.

It happened just days after Kosovo’s leaders rejected an amended plan for the deployment of an EU mission.

In Pristina, Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians have demonstrated their opposition.

The plan would allow police in mostly Serb areas to report to UN authorities in Kosovo, rather than being under an EU umbrella. Protesters complain that amounts to a de facto partition, by failing to recognise Kosovo’s self-declared independence.