Serbia: US Strike in Libya Killed 2 Embassy Hostages

Two Serbian embassy staffers who had been held hostage in Libya since November are believed to have been killed in Friday's US airstrikes on an ISIS camp in western Libya, Serbia's foreign minister said Saturday. The minister identified the two as Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver. They were snatched in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal city of Sabratha. Speaking at a news conference in Belgrade, the minister said information about the deaths was given to Serbia by foreign officials but had not yet been confirmed by the Libyan government. "We got the information, including photos, which clearly show that this is most probably true," he said.

In November, gunmen in Libya crashed into a convoy of vehicles taking Serbia's ambassador to neighboring Tunisia and then kidnapped two embassy employees. Serbian ambassador Oliver Potezica, who escaped unharmed and was traveling in the three-vehicle convoy with his wife and two sons aged 8 and 14, later recounted the attack. "It happened like in a movie," Potezica told Tanjug news agency from Tunisia. "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." (More Libya stories.)