The President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, on Monday praised police for rounding up 40 suspected Islamist militants, vowing that “Kosovo will not be a shelter for extremism.

“We will never allow our country to become a source of criminal and terrorist acts that threaten peace and stability,” she said.

Police suspect that the 40 persons they arrested earlier on Monday are members of ISIS, or IS, as it is now known – the militant Islamist organisation fighting to establish a Sunni Caliphate in the Middle East, against which the US recently launched air strikes to halt its advance into the Kurdish region of northwest Iraq.

“The operation was conducted after evaluating the danger and importance [of the suspects] for national security,” police said.

According to police, around 60 houses were searched during operations that took place in different towns and cities, including the capital, Prishtina, Ferizaj, Gjilan, Prizren, Mitrovica, and Peja.

Kosovo Police said they also confiscated arms and explosives as material evidence. Kosovo Police said they were committed to fight all those who “choose to join suspected terrorist groups operating in Iraq and Syria.

“Based on its mandate, the Kosovo Police will take all the measures to prevent and fight every form of violent extremism and the inclusion of citizens in criminal activities of terrorist groups operating in Kosovo or abroad,” a press release said.

The State Prosecution meawhile announced that besides arresting the 40 persons alleged participants in terrorist groups abroad, they were also investigating some imams.

“There are some other cases of different profiles that are under investigations, including imams,” Chief Prosecutor Sevdije Morina told a press conference.

The Islamic Community of Kosovo, the body representing the majority Muslim community, meanwhile said it opposed “all those who support and promote the hate speech.

“The country’s stability, our citizens’ security and the life of our youth is the responsibility of state institution, which should be supported without hesitation by all society,” a press release read.

Five major embassies accredited in Kosovo representing the so-called Quint states, hailed the Kosovo Police action, saying that they were “committed to working together with the Kosovo authorites to ensure public security.

“The war against extreme ideologies requires the engagement of all segments of the Kosovo society and also a strong international cooperation,” the joint press release of the embassies of France, Germany, the UK, and the US said, after a meeting with President Jahjaga.

A number of Muslim Albanians from the Balkans have joined the sectarian conflict in Iraq and Syria.

Police say that 16 Kosovars have died in fighting in Syria and Iraq so far. On Sunday, it was reported that 18-year-old Patriot Matoshi, from Kosovo, had been killed in the conflict in Syria.

The International Center for the Study of Radicalization, ISRA, a think tank based in King’s College, London, believes that some 300 Albanian fighters, from Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, have joined militant groups in Syria, including Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State, or IS.

Recently, Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a Kosovo Albanian who went to fight in Iraq and Syria, made headlines when pictures were published showed him allegedly beheading a young soldier in Syria.