ISIS

DECANI - Sava Janjic, prior of the Serbian Orthodox monastery Visoki Decani, refuted on Tuesday a statement by Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Redzepi that three Albanian minors have been arrested for daubing graffiti on the walls and gate of the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani in the south of Kosovo-Metohija promoting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania are the main recruiting grounds in the Balkans for radical Islamists seeking fighters for the wars in Syria and Iraq. In terms of numbers, they come just behind Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, Radio Free Europe, RFE, reported on Tuesday.

‘The Inevitable Caliphate? A History of the Struggle for Global Islamic Union, 1924 to the Present’ by Reza Pankhurst (Hurst, £18.99, 280 pages)

The President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, on Monday praised the country's police for rounding up 40 suspected Islamist militants, saying that “Kosovo will not be a shelter for extremism.”

“We will never allow our country to become a source of criminal and terrorist acts that threaten peace and stability,” she said.

Whatever else you may say about the “young war criminal” (as British journalist Alan Watkins used to call former prime minister Tony Blair), he certainly fights his corner with great determination. He is condemned to spend his life defending his part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and last weekend he was at it again.

Every disaster creates opportunities for somebody. If the Kurds of Iraq play their cards right, they could finally end up with the borders they want, fully recognised by a government in Baghdad that has been saved by Kurdish troops.