BELGRADE: A US strike on an Islamic State militant camp in Libya killed two Serbian embassy employees who were kidnapped in the area in November, Serbia’s foreign minister said Saturday.
“Unfortunately as a consequence of this attack on the Islamic State (IS) in Libya, the two of them lost their lives,” Ivica Dacic told reporters, referring to Friday’s air strike.
Dacic said they had received information from several sources, including other intelligence services, of the deaths of embassy communications chief Sladjana Stankovic and her driver Jovica Stepic, which were yet to be officially confirmed by Libyan authorities.
The minister offered “sincere condolences to the families of the victims”, saying they had been informed of the news and that the repatriation of bodies would be organised in the coming days.
Official identification of the bodies was expected in the coming hours, he said.
Stankovic and Stepic were kidnapped on November 8 in the coastal city of Sabratha, 70 kilometres (42 miles) west of Tripoli, from a convoy of cars heading to the Tunisian border.
The US strike, which targeted a militant training camp near Sabratha, killed dozens of people, who probably including Noureddine Chouchane, a senior IS operative behind attacks in Tunisia, US officials said Friday.
It was the second US air raid in the violence-wracked North African country targeting the fast-expanding militant group in the past three months.
Libya descended into chaos after the October 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling to control its vast energy resources.
The lawless country has become a magnet for militants who receive weapons training in camps before launching deadly attacks in other countries, and Sabratha is considered a bastion of extremism.
Belgrade maintains an embassy in Tripoli, and Serbian citizens — mostly doctors, other medical staff and construction workers — have been working in Libya for decades due to close bilateral relations during Kadhafi’s regime.
– Serbia seeks explanation –
Dacic said Serbia had received no information from Washington about the attack.
He said they would demand an official explanation from United States and Libya about their knowledge and choice of the targets, “but that is at this moment perhaps less important than the news that our employees lost their lives”.
Britain’s defence ministry said Friday that the strike on the camp was carried out from a Royal Air Force base, RAF Lakenheath.
A militant safe house was destroyed in the dawn raid about 70 kilometres (42 miles) west of Tripoli, according to Hussein al-Dawadi, an official in Sabratha near the border with Tunisia.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that Chouchane, also known as “Sabir,” and other militants had been planning attacks against American and other Western interests.
Chouchane is suspected of being behind an attack in July on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse that killed 38 tourists, including 30 Britons.
The Pentagon estimates that the Islamic State group has about 5,000 fighters in Libya.
