Great Britain has sent personnel and vehicles to Kosovo for what the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, says are routine exercises.

In a media release, KFOR said personnel and vehicles from the Royal Yorkshire Regiment arrived in Durrës, Albania, on Wednesday and will be moved to Kosovo by land route.

He did not say how many personnel or vehicles were sent.

“As it was said earlier, the Royal Yorkshire Regiment will carry out a series of training activities, together with other KFOR troops, until the end of October”, the announcement states.

Earlier this month, Britain sent more than 300 troops to Kosovo for these routine exercises.

KFOR emphasized that “the aim of the exercises is to test the existing procedures for the rapid deployment of additional troops and their integration within the mission”.

The British contingent will return to the UK once the exercises end in October, the peacekeeping mission said.

The movement of British army personnel and vehicles to Kosovo for training took place a few weeks after KFOR conducted what it called training on the Ibri bridge, which divides Mitrovica into the south inhabited by Albanians and the north inhabited by Serbs, writes REL.

KFOR has a permanent presence on this bridge, which Kosovo intends to open for vehicle traffic.

The international community has asked the authorities in Kosovo to refrain from such an action for now, while the NATO mission and the European Union have asked that the bridge issue be resolved through dialogue.