ANKARA, June 4. /TASS/. Turkey has begun to deploy a special operations battalion to Kosovo at NATO’s request, Turkey’s defense ministry said on Sunday.

"A commandos battalion of the 65th mechanized infantry brigade <…> is being deployed to Kosovo," it said.

The ministry said earlier that this unit would be billeted at the Sultan Murat barracks on June 4-5.

The situation in the Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija escalated on May 26 after Kosovo law enforcement officers tried to seize local administration buildings to make it possible for the new mayors of these municipalities, who were elected despite nearly the entire Serb population boycotting the elections, take their offices. On May 29, the NATO-led international security force in Kosovo (KFOR) cordoned off the administrative buildings, clashing with the protesters.

According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, fifty-two Serbs sought medical assistance in Kosovska Mitrovica. Three of them were badly wounded. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said on May 29 that the Serbian army had been put on high alert following the escalation in Kosovo and Metohija and that army units had been deployed along the administrative border with Kosovo.