Two Serbian diplomats killed in U.S. airstrike on Lybia
Saturday, 20 February 2016
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/28900/46/Two Serbian Embassy staff members abducted in Libya in November were among nearly 50 people killed on Friday in U.S. air strikes on a suspected Islamic State training camp, Serbia's prime minister said, Reuters reports.
U.S. officials said the site targeted in the strikes in Sabratha, western Libya, was a camp used by up to 60 militants, including Tunisian Noureddine Chouchane, blamed for two attacks on tourists in Tunisia last year in which dozens were killed.
Sladjana Stankovic, a Serbian communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were taken hostage on Nov. 8 after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near Sabratha, a coastal city.
"It is officially confirmed that the two embassy staff were killed in air raids," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a news briefing in Belgrade. He described the deaths as "terrible collateral damage" and said Serbia had been close to securing their release.
The mayor of Sabratha, Hussein al-Thwadi, said the death toll from Friday's strikes had risen to 49.
It was the second U.S. air raid in three months against Islamic State in Libya, where the militants have exploited chaos following Muammar Gaddafi's 2011 downfall to build up a presence on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
