The attacker who threw the Israeli embassy in Belgrade into panic yesterday was only 25 years old after, armed with a crossbow, he injured a Serbian policeman in front of the diplomatic headquarters. Milos Zujovic, a convert to Islamic extremism and known by the religious name of Salahudin, was shot dead by officers present. Late in the morning he showed up at the headquarters led by the Israeli ambassador to Serbia Yahel Vilan and shot the dart at the neck of the agent who was on surveillance. Immediately taken to hospital, the injured policeman underwent an operation and his life is not in danger.
According to Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, Zujovic’s hand is not isolated but linked to people “already known to the security services and suspected of being linked to the Wahhabi movement”. For this reason, yesterday the Serbian police forces carried out a series of searches and arrests as a precaution, certain that “this is a terrorist act directed against the Serbian state and against a member of the gendarmerie”, he explained, while Prime Minister Vucevic he spoke of an action “the work of an individual, a senseless act not to be attributed to any religion”, to which Serbia will react to ensure the necessary security for the Serbs.
A terrorist act directed against Israel, as defined by the Israeli ambassador to Serbia Yahel Vilan who thanked the injured agent for the commitment that could have cost him his life. The police identified the attacker as a “convert” to Islam, born in 1999 in the city of Mladenovac, about 50 kilometers from Belgrade, who recently moved to Novi Pazar, a center characterized by the presence of the Bosnian Muslim minority in Serbia and garrison of ‘Islam in the country. On Serbian territory, security measures have been increased for all foreign embassies, government buildings and also for the most sensitive public places such as shopping centers or busy areas.
The comments from European politics were immediate, primarily from the Italian representatives: according to the group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Chamber of Deputies, Tommaso Foti, the attack on the Israeli embassy in Belgrade «arouses indignation and concern and must invite everyone to a profound reflection on security on European territory in an increasingly delicate geopolitical context”.
