Suicide bomber dies after attack on US embassy
A SUICIDE attacker blew himself up after throwing an explosive device into the US embassy compound in Podgorica, the Montenegrin government said yesterday.
Authorities have not released any theories as to the motive for the early morning attack in Montenegro, which recently joined Nato.
“In front of the @USEmbassyMNE building in #Podgorica, #Montenegro an unknown person committed suicide with an explosive device,” the government tweeted, saying the device was most probably a hand grenade.
Montenegro’s main daily paper Vijesti identified the attacker as a 43-year-old man born in Serbia but who was living in Podgorica.
It also published a picture, apparently from his Facebook page, showing an award he won for his service in the Yugoslav army in 1999, which was signed by the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
That was the year in which Nato struck Serbia to end the Kosovo war. In 2006, Montenegro declared independence and has espoused pro-Western policies ever since.
Police said the explosion inside the embassy’s courtyard had left a crater, but that there was no other damage to the embassy’s property.
On its Twitter account, the embassy said all its staff were safe and accounted for but it cancelled all visa services for the day, although access was available for US citizens on an emergency basis.
A guard who asked not to be named said he heard two explosions, one after another.
“Police came quickly and the body of a man was taken away,” he said.
Montenegro, a small Adriatic state of about 660 000 people, joined Nato in May.
The decision to become a member provoked violent protests by the pro-Russian opposition in 2015.
In October 2016, authorities said they had thwarted a plot by pro-Russian militants to storm parliament and oust the pro-Western government on the eve of general elections. Authorities alleged that Russian state bodies were involved in the conspiracy, which they said was aimed at preventing Montenegro from joining Nato.
In October 2011, the US embassy in Sarajevo, in neighbouring Bosnia, was the target of a militant attack.
An Islamist, Mevlid Jasarevic, opened fire with an automatic rifle at the embassy building, wounding a police officer.
He was also wounded in the exchange of fire, and later sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.