Is this the U.S. State Department admitting a mistake? "Serbia withdrew its troops"

Is this the U.S. State Department admitting a mistake? "Serbia withdrew its troops"

U.S. State Department announced today that since September 29, the withdrawal of Serbian military forces from the administrative line towards Kosovo and Metohija has been noticeable.

"We have been monitoring the deployment of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks and mechanized infantry units. We have called on Serbia to withdraw its forces from the border and reduce tensions," State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said at a press briefing.

"We have observed some withdrawal of forces and materials along the Kosovo border since September 29, and we expect Serbia to continue de-escalation steps, including further withdrawal of forces to or below historical norms," he added.

Asked to comment on the arrest of a suspect in the death of a member of the so-called Kosovo police and causing tension during the armed action in the village of Banjska, Patel said that the State Department was aware of that information.

"We have seen those reports, but we will not interfere in the investigation. As we said, we know that the attack was well coordinated and planned, and all those who were involved in planning and carrying out this attack must be brought to justice," he said. Let's recall that previously the former U.S. envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Richard Grenell, explained how the official Washington was actually wrong about the "build-up" of the Serbian army. Grenell announced that, based on information he received from the State Department, U.S. National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby did not use the latest information on the number of members of Serbian forces on the administrative line with Kosovo, that is, he incorrectly said that there had been "accumulation" of forces at the moment when their withdrawal was underway.

This caused strong reactions from the West, led by the USA, so the question was also posed to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, during an interview on CNN with the American journalist Christiane Amanpour. Also, both the Minister of Defense of Serbia and the Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Army held an extraordinary press conference on the occasion, where they denied that Serbia was accumulating troops on the administrative line.