MITROVICA, Kosovo — Ethnic Serb mayors took office Friday in majority-Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo, more than two years after a governing crisis there led to clashes with NATO-led peacekeepers.

The new mayors in four northern Kosovo municipalities were sworn in following local elections in October. All four come from the dominant Srpska Lista, or Serbian List, party which is backed by Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic.

Kosovo is a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008 but Belgrade does not recognize the split. The dispute has been a source of tension in the volatile Balkans that went through a series of wars in the 1990s, including the Kosovo conflict in 1998-99.

Serb officials in northern Kosovo in 2023 staged a walkout and boycotted an election over a

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