Two detained after attack outside Israeli embassy in Belgrade

BELGRADE: Two men were remanded in custody on Sunday in connection with an attack outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade that Serbian authorities called a “targeted terrorist act”, a minister said.

The assailant, whom the police said was a “convert” to Islam, shot a Serbian police officer in the neck with a crossbow while he was on duty in front of the embassy early on Saturday.

The assailant, from Mladenovac, near Belgrade, lived in Novi Pazar, a historical and political centre of Serbia´s Bosniak Muslim minority, police said.

Early indications connected the attack with people suspected of being linked to the ultra-conservative Wahhabist branch of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia, the authorities said.

They added that a number of people known to the security services were suspected of being linked to the attack.

“Searches were conducted at several locations in Serbia, dozens of people were questioned”, with two being held in custody, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told the state-run RTS broadcaster on Sunday.

The prosecutors will establish whether they were linked with the “targeted terrorist attack”, he added. “What is indisputable about all those people is that they belong to the Wahhabi extremist movement.”