KFOR peacekeeping troops dressed in riot gear have blocked a group of ethnic Albanians from reaching a Serb village. Ethnic tensions have spilled over into bloody violence, and now the NATO-led force has called for back-up in a bid to calm the situation. They used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. At least 22 people have been killed in the uprising over the past 24 hours. Around 1,000 extra Nato troops, including 750 British soldiers, will arrive in the next few days. They are unlikely to be welcomed ; minority Serbs in Kosovo say Nato has failed them; ethnic Albanian political leaders claim there will be no peace until Kosovo is declared independent. Simmering resentment in the region spilled over when two ethnic Albanian boys drowned, after being chased by Serbs with a dog. That followed a drive-by shooting in which a Serb teenager was injured. The clashes illustrate the failure of the UN-led administration in the province to reconcile the two sides since it took control in 1999. **Serbs protest in support of their community in Kosovo*** They have been described as scenes reminiscent of the nationalist rallies that took place before the start of the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Thousands of Serbs have taken to the streets across Serbia and Montenegro in support of their Christian-orthodox community in Kosovo. Police in Belgrade used teargas to break up protestors trying to reach the Albanian embassy. Protestors have been torching mosques and making threats against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. As the mosque in Belgrade burnt overnight, these demonstrators chanted "we will not give up Kosovo." **PHOTO CAPTION*** A view of a burnt mosque in the southern Serbian town of Nis, some 250 kms (155 miles) south of Belgrade, Thursday March 18, 2004. (AP Photo / Kostadin Kamenov)