Kosovo politician shot

The KLA signed an agreement to disband last year

A former Kosovo Liberation Army commander turned politician has been wounded in an attack described as an assassination attempt.

Ramush Haradinaj, one of the best-known commanders of the now-disbanded KLA, was injured near the city of Pec by a rocket or mortar shell.

K-For troops took the injured to be treated at a US base

The Nato-led K-For peacekeeping force said it had not been aware of the attack at the time and details were sketchy.

But K-For said Mr Haradinaj had sought medical assistance and was taken to a military hospital at a US base.

The KLA were officially disbanded after Nato bombing drove Serb forces out of Kosovo last year and the province was placed under international control.

The Kosovo Protection Corps, the KLA's civilian successor, said Mr Haradinaj had been attacked while travelling home.

Doctors at Camp Bondsteel in eastern Kosovo were treating the former commander for a two-inch laceration which was not considered life-threatening, K-For spokesman Major Scott Slaten said.

Power struggle

Mr Haradinaj is the third senior member of the KLA to have been attacked in recent months.

One was gunned down in the capital Pristina in March, the other in the city of Prizren in May.

Some international officials have suggested that former comrades may have turned on each other in a battle for post-war power.

Kosovo is expected to hold its first democratic elections in October this year.

Sherif Konjufca, an official in the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said the party president was suffering from facial wounds and his brother had also been injured.

It is the second time Mr Haradinaj has hit the headlines since he moved into political life.

In May, he was involved in a fight with Russian peacekeeping troops who had stopped him at a checkpoint.