BELGRADE, Serbia — Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Friday’s U.S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday, questioning why the Americans did not appear to know
BELGRADE, Serbia — Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Friday’s U.S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday, questioning why the Americans did not appear to know that foreign captives were at the site.
A U.S. official said American forces had “no information indicating that their deaths were a result” of the airstrikes.
Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were killed in the American bombing. They 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,” Vucic told reporters, adding: “But that will always remain an unknown fact to us.”
American F-15E fighter-bombers on Friday struck an Islamic State group training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing at least 49 people, probably including an IS operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, U.S. and local officials said. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the U.S. is determined to stop IS from “gaining traction” in Libya. Cook said the training camp was “relatively new.”
“Our forces watched this training camp for weeks leading up to the operation, and at the time of the strike there were no indications of any civilians present,” Cook said.
“While the circumstances of their deaths remain unclear, we, nevertheless, express our deepest condolences to the Serbian government and the families of those killed. We will share whatever information we can with the Serbian government,” Cook said.
Serbian Foreign Minister Dacic said Serbia had known for a while the exact location where the Serb hostages were being held 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,” Dacic said.
