New commander to lead U.S. troops in Kosovo

The new commander of U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo took charge Sunday in a ceremony at a sprawling military base.

Brig. Gen. William H. Wade will lead some 1,800 U.S. peacekeepers in the east of this United Nations-administered province. He will also be in charge of hundreds of troops from Ukraine, Poland, Greece and Lithuania serving in the U.S. area of operations.

The troops are part of a 18,000 strong NATO-led peacekeeping force, which has been deployed in Kosovo since the alliance's war in 1999, aimed at stopping the crackdown of Serb troops on separatist ethnic Albanians.

The U.S. troops under Wade's command are from the 40th Infantry Division. They replace the troops from the 38th Infantry Division under the command of Brig. Gen. Tod J. Carmony.