Croatia detains military officer and girlfriend for suspected spying

Croatia has detained a military officer and his Serbian girlfriend on suspicion of espionage, a regional office of the state attorney general said on Thursday.

It said prosecutors had opened an investigation into the couple but provided no details of the accused. President Zoran Milanovic said in a statement that the main suspect was a 54-year-old Croatian military officer with the initials J.I.

Local media said the officer was a military pilot who served in the Croatian contingent of KFOR, the NATO-led international peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and that he and his girlfriend were suspected of spying for Serbia.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports, and Serbia did not comment.

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Serbia's former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 but Serbia still considers it as part of its territory, so KFOR has been guarding the peace there since a 1998-1999 war ended.