Arab News | Serbian police say assailant killed after attacking a guard outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade

BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbian police said on Wednesday that an unidentified assailant attacked a guard with knives outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade and was killed just after midnight.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that police were treating the incident as a “terrorist attack” and had raised the terror threat to the highest level and stepped up police presence at key locations.

Dacic said that “a minor, so far unidentified … shouting Allahu Akbar, attacked the member of Gendarmerie and attacked him with two knives.” He added that the police officer “liquidated” the assailant in “self-defense” and was lightly wounded.

Dacic said that Serbia’s security agencies had been monitoring the attacker, who he said was a supporter of the Daesh group. Dacic said that “he kept the black flag in support of the Islamic State on his Instagram” account.

Wednesday’s attack comes just days after Serbia held a key early parliamentary election on Sunday in which long-ruling former President Aleksandar Vucic was defeated by a youth-led movement after almost two years of protests against him. But Vucic and his allies still control the police as the new government is yet to be formed.

Israel also held its parliamentary vote Tuesday that exit polls said produced no clear winner.

In June 2024, an attacker with a crossbow wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade. The assailant was shot and killed by a guard.