Serbia says it has arrested nine former paramilitaries suspected of committing war crimes during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo.

They are accused of killing 41 ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Cuska in May 1999. The Serbian authorities say 15 others suspected of dozens of other murders in the village remain at large. The massacre coincided with NATO air raids on Serbia.

The arrests are thought to be linked to Serbia's efforts to join the European Union. The country formally applied for full membership last year. To secure membership talks, Serbia must first arrest Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb ex-general sought by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide charges relating to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The arrests come as Bosnia's state prosecutor indicted a former Serb police commander suspected of taking part in the killing of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II. Nedjo Ikonic, 45, has been in detention since his extradition to Bosnia in January from the United States.