An ethnic Serb minister in Kosovo's government was fired on Tuesday to try to avert more violent protests over a remark he made last month that offended the Balkan country's ethnic Albanian majority.

Aleksandar Jablanovic, minister for communities, had branded as "savages" a group of Kosovo Albanians protesting against ethnic Serb pilgrims marking Orthodox Christmas in January.

Riot police fought running battles with protesters hurling rocks and petrol bombs in Kosovo's capital Pristina on Tuesday in the worst unrest since the former Serbian province seceded in 2008.

Triggered by remarks by an ethnic Serb cabinet minister and a row over a disputed mine, the violence was a potent reminder of the depth of popular dissatisfaction in majority-Albanian Kosovo, still mired in poverty and corruption seven years since declaring independence from Serbia.

(Reuters) - Riot police and protesters fought running battles in Kosovo's capital Pristina on Tuesday as anti-government protests erupted into the worst unrest since the former Serbian province seceded in 2008.

A Reuters reporter saw masked police officers firing tear gas and water cannon, trying to disperse about 2,000 protesters who had taken to the streets in rallies organised by opposition political parties.

Ambulances attended to dozens of injured people as police pursued protesters into side streets around central Pristina. Demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles.

27 January 2015, 14:33

By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Riot police and protesters fought running battles in the Kosovo capital Pristina on Tuesday as anti-government protests erupted into the worst unrest since the former Serbian province seceded in 2008.

A Reuters reporter saw masked police officers firing tear gas and water cannon, trying to disperse about 2,000 protesters who had taken to the streets in rallies organized by opposition political parties.

Five people in Kosovo have been indicted on terrorism charges for fighting in Syria, trying to buy assault rifles and assaulting two Christian missionaries from the United States in 2013.

The indictments coincided with a vote in parliament on introducing prison sentences for waging war abroad, as the predominantly Muslim Balkan country seeks to confront the threat posed by radical Islamists returning from Syria and Iraq.

Kosovo police fired teargas on Saturday evening to disperse thousands of protesters throwing stones at a government building in a demonstration called by ethnic Albanian opposition parties. It was the biggest protest seen in Pristina since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Hundreds of miners in Kosovo ended a three-day strike on Thursday in the country's richest mine, which is also claimed by Serbia.

Kosovo's new government said last week it would take control of the Trepca mining complex but backtracked on Monday following a furious response from Serbia.

On Tuesday, some 350 Trepca miners refused to return from their shift below ground to protest the government reversal. The number later reached around 800 miners.

PRISTINA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Kosovo backtracked on Monday from a pledge to take control of a huge mining complex claimed by Serbia, a step Belgrade had warned would put at risk European Union-sponsored negotiations between the Balkan neighbours.

The Trepca complex of lead, zinc and silver mines once employed 20,000 people and accounted for the majority of the former Yugoslavia's mineral wealth.

Kosovo's government said on Friday it planned to take over the giant Trepca mine complex to save it from bankruptcy and restore it to its former glory, angering the country's former master Serbia.

Serbia said the plan, which is expected to be debated by the Kosovo parliament on Monday, would threaten a fragile thaw in relations with its former southern province which it lost control of in 1999.

The Trepca mine is a giant, rusting complex of lead, zinc and silver mines that once employed 20,000 people and accounted for the majority of the former Yugoslavia's mineral wealth.

Kosovo police have arrested a Serbian national suspected of planning a terrorist attack, the interior minister told a news conference on Friday.

The suspect, from Belgrade, was arrested on Thursday evening with 12.2 kilos (27 pounds) of explosives in his car in a street in the Kosovan capital Pristina where many Western embassies are located, Skender Hyseni said.

"We suspect the clear aim of this person was to commit a terrorist attack," he told journalists.