Serbia confirms embassy staff killed in US airstrikes on Libya

Two Serbian embassy staff members who had been held hostage by Islamic State militants since November died in yesterday's US airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in Western Libya, Serbian officials have announced.

Serbian Prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that communications officer Sladjana Stankovic and driver Jovica Stepic were killed in the American bombing. They had been taken hostage 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.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgrade earlier, foreign minister Ivica Dacic said information about the deaths had not been confirmed by the Libyan government, but had arrived through “foreign officials.”

“We got the information, including photos, which clearly show that this is most probably true,” Dacic said.

On Friday, American F-15E fighter-bombers struck what US sources say is an Isis training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing dozens, probably including an Isis operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, US and local officials said. However, Dacic said that Serbian security services had been informed that a criminal group linked to Isis had demanded ransom for the hostages who were being held at the site.

Dacic said Serbia had known where the hostages were 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.”

He said that on the other hand, the American's were claiming that it was an ISIS training camp. Dacic did not specify the amount of ransom demanded of the families, saying only it was “impossible to pay”.

“It wasn’t in the interests of the people who held them to kill them, because there were no other demands but financial,” Dacic said.