A US air strike believed to have killed an Islamic State group operative behind the mass murder of tourists on a Tunisian beach also killed two kidnapped Serbian embassy employees, Belgrade said on Saturday. The attack on Friday targeted a jihadist training camp near the Libyan coastal city of Sabratha, killing dozens of people. But Belgrade said the victims of the strike also included two employees from its embassy in Libya, who were taken hostage on November 8 in Sabratha from a convoy of cars heading to the Tunisian border.
US officials said the raid likely killed Noureddine Chouchane, also known as "Sabir," who along with other jihadists had been planning attacks against American and other Western interests. Chouchane is suspected of being behind both the beach attack in July 2015 near the Tunisian city of Sousse that killed 38 tourists, including 30 Britons and an attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis that killed 21 tourists and a policeman in March 2015.
Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group. "It has just been officially confirmed that two Serbian citizens who were foreign ministry employees, Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic, were killed," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters. "They were killed by explosions, obviously we are talking about American bombs," he said, expressing "deepest condolences" to the families.
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