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On Saturday (June 29), an attacker was killed after firing a crossbow at police guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade in what Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called a terrorist attack against Serbia.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said no embassy staff were injured in the attack, and Vucic said the policeman was in stable condition in hospital after undergoing surgery to remove an arrow from his neck.
Vucic said the attacker was named Salahudin Zujovic, a man from central Serbia who was originally a Serbian Orthodox Christian but later converted to Islam. He also said the attacker committed the crime with an accomplice who is still at large.
“We are looking for another person. We will ensure the safety of all diplomatic missions and guarantee security,” Vucic told reporters after visiting the injured policeman.
Vucic added that Serbian security agencies had been tracking the two men before Saturday’s attack but did not have enough evidence to detain them.
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the police officer who came under attack fired several shots at the attacker, killing him.
He said some people suspected of involvement in the attack had been arrested and investigators were looking into possible links between the case and followers of the Wahhabi sect of puritanical Sunni Muslims.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that “an attempted terrorist attack occurred near the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade.”
The embassy is closed and no embassy staff were injured. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” the agency said in a statement.
Since Israel launched a war to eliminate Hamas in the Palestinian region of Gaza following its deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel-related institutions around the world have been on high alert to prevent attacks and protests.
Dacic said the officer was in the guardhouse when the attacker approached him several times, asked him where the museum was, then pulled a crossbow from his bag and shot him.
Police investigators in white forensic suits surrounded the attacker’s body outside the building, which was surrounded by police cars.
In 2009, a Serbian court sentenced four Wahhabi Muslims to prison for planning an attack on a football stadium in a southwestern Serbian town where most of the population is moderate Muslims.
Read more by Euractiv
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