By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 20 February 2016:
The Pentagon has not yet pronounced on the death of two Serbian diplomats in yesterday . . .[restrict]morning’s raid on two suspected IS locations in Sabratha.
A Defence department spokesman told the Libya Herald “ We are still assessing the results of the strike and will make further statements if and when appropriate”. It appears that the initial reaction of the US military was to doubt the death of the two diplomats, but evidence of the demise of communications officer Sladjana Stankovic and her colleague Jovica Stepic appears to have become overwhelming.
Serbian foreign minister Ivica Dacic today told a Belgrade press conference: “Unfortunately, we received the information on Friday afternoon that several foreign nationals were killed in the attack, including the two staff members of our embassy”.
He added: “The information is yet to be officially confirmed by the Libyan authorities after the identification process. We cannot be completely sure, but we got the photographs that indicate clearly that the information is most probably true”.
Dacic said that since the two diplomats were kidnapped last November just outside Sabratha, neither the Serbian foreign ministry nor security services had had no contact with the kidnappers, “not even for money” and had not negotiated with anyone. [/restrict]
