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Kosovo authorities have identified a second suspected wartime mass grave site in the northern municipality of Zubin Potok, days after excavation work began at another nearby location believed to contain the remains of victims of the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.
The Kosovo Special Prosecution said investigators identified the new suspected site in the village of Jabuke on Sunday, where human remains are believed to be buried, according to local media.
Prosecutors said they will seek court authorization to carry out exhumation and forensic examinations before excavation begins.
Kosovo authorities said the newly identified site in Jabuke is about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the ongoing excavation area in Kalluder, also in Zubin Potok.
Acting President Albulena Haxhiu said Sunday that suspicions surrounding a second mass grave were "a grave reminder" of crimes committed during the war and showed that justice had yet to be fully served.
"Every discovered grave is a step toward the truth, but also evidence that the wounds of war remain open until the last missing person is found and those responsible are brought to justice," she said in a post on Facebook.
In a separate post on X, Haxhiu accused Serbia of continuing to conceal information about missing persons, intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice, urging international partners to condemn such actions.
Serbia has not publicly commented on the identification of the second suspected site.
Last week, however, Belgrade's Office for Kosovo condemned the arrest of two Kosovo Serbs linked to the investigation, calling it an act of "terrorism, revenge and intimidation" against the Serbian community.
Excavations began July 28 in the village of Kalluder after authorities received information suggesting the site could contain a mass grave linked to the Kosovo war.
The remains of seven people have so far been uncovered at the site, according to acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Kurti visited the site Saturday and said he believed those buried there had been "violently abducted, executed" in the spring of 1999.
He said the remains could belong to a group of 23 intellectuals, including doctors, professors and human rights activists, who were abducted and forcibly disappeared from the northern city of Mitrovica on April 19, 1999.
Prosecutors have not confirmed the identities of those killed or their connection to the Kosovo war. Officials have said DNA testing and forensic work will be required and that the process could take months.
Kurti said excavations at the Kalluder site could continue for weeks or even months because the human remains were scattered across the area.
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said excavation work was continuing at the original location in Zubin Potok, where officials believe as many as 23 people may be buried.
Police have arrested three men from the local area in recent days on suspicion of war crimes, prosecutors said.
Efforts to recover people who went missing during the war have been slow, as tensions between Belgrade and Pristina remain strained.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008.
Despite both sides agreeing to a joint commission to accelerate the search for people missing from the war, there has been little evidence of improved cooperation.
The 1998-1999 war between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian armed forces killed around 13,000 people and left about 4,000 missing.
Decades of work to uncover mass graves have found the remains of thousands, but more than 1,600 people, most of them Kosovo Albanians, are still listed as missing.
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