BELGRADE // Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in US air strikes on an ISIL camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said on Saturday.
Prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were killed in Friday’s bombing.
The pair were snatched in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of Sabratha.
“Apparently, the Americans were not aware that foreign citizens were being kept there,” said Mr Vucic.
It came as Libya’s internationally-recognised government condemned the US bombing in Sabratha, saying it was not coordinated with the authorities and was “a clear and flagrant violation of sovereignty of the Libyan state”.
Earlier, Serbian foreign minister Ivica Dacic said information about the deaths of the Serbian embassy staffers was given to Belgrade by foreign officials but had not been confirmed by the Libyan government.
“We got the information, including photos, which clearly show that this is most probably true,” Mr Dacic said.
US and local officials said those killed in the bombing, near the Tunisian border, probably included an ISIL operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year.
Noureddine Chouchane, also known as Sabir, had been planning attacks against American and other western interests along with other extremists, US officials said.
He was suspected of being behind the beach attack last July near the Tunisian city of Sousse that killed 38 tourists, and an attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis that killed 21 tourists and a policeman in March last year.
Mr Dacic said Serbia had known where the hostages were and had been working to get them back, adding that Libyan troops were considering an operation to free them.
“I believe we had been close to the solution for them to be freed. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the attack against ISIS in Libya, the two of them lost their lives,” he said. “We will seek official explanation from both Libya and the United States about the available facts and the selection of targets.”
According to information received by the Serbian security services, a criminal group believed to be linked to ISIL had demanded ransom for the hostages, who they were holding at the site that was bombed, Mr Dacic said.
“On the other hand, the American administration said it was an (ISIS) training camp ... This is information that has to be checked.”
The foreign minister did not specify the amount of ransom demanded of the families, saying only that it was “impossible to pay”.
“It wasn’t in the interests of the people who held them to kill them, because there were no other demands but financial,” he added.
A Libyan armed group calling itself the Special Deterrent Forces announced on Facebook that the two bodies had been delivered to Tripoli’s Matiga Airport. The group posted pictures showing two green coffins inside a hearse, and another of one of the coffins sitting on a tarmac next to a small plane.
The Special Deterrent Forces are loyal to the militia-backed government that now controls Tripoli. The group’s Facebook post did not indicate when the bodies would be flown to Serbia.
In November, gunmen crashed into a convoy of vehicles taking Serbia’s ambassador to neighbouring Tunisia and then kidnapped the two embassy employees. Serbian ambassador Oliver Potezica escaped unharmed along with his wife and two sons.
“The attack happened when one of the embassy cars was hit from behind. When the driver came out to check what happened, he was dragged into one of the attackers’ cars,” Mr Potezica told Serbia’s Tanjug news agency at the time.
Since the 2011 overthrow of Libya’s longtime autocrat Muammar Qadaffi, the sprawling North African nation has fractured into warring camps backed by a loose array of militias, former rebels and tribes.
Libya’s internationally-recognised government has been forced out of the capital, Tripoli, and now operates out of the eastern cities of Tobruk and Bayda. Another government, backed by a militia alliance known as Libya Dawn, controls Tripoli and much of western Libya. UN-brokered efforts to form a unity government continue to falter.
The chaos has provided fertile ground for extremist groups to flourish, in particular ISIL.
* Associated Press
