US air strike on Libya kills 2 abducted Serbians

belgrade/tripoli — Two Serbian embassy staff members abducted in Libya in November are believed to have been among nearly 50 people killed on Friday in US air strikes on a suspected Daesh training camp, Serbia’s foreign minister said.

US 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 November 8 after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near Sabratha, a coastal city. “We are expecting identification of the victims, so formally we cannot confirm the information,” Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told a news conference on Saturday.

The mayor of Sabratha, Hussein Al Thwadi, said Libyan authorities had sent photos of the bodies to Serbian diplomats for an initial identification.

He said the death toll from Friday’s strikes had risen to 49.

It was the second US air raid in three months against Daesh 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.

On Saturday, Libya’s attorney general said one of six wounded survivors told prosecutors that those in the building that was hit were “members of Daesh who came to Libya recently for training and then to carry out terrorist acts in Tunisia”. —

We are expecting identification of the victims, so formally we cannot confirm the information

Ivica Dacic, Serbian FM