"U.S. thinks kidnapped Serbs were killed before airstrike"

"The U.S. military believes that an airstrike against IS in Libya did not kill two kidnapped Serbian diplomats, as Belgrade has asserted," writes a U.S. daily.

Izvor: Tanjug

Friday, 26.02.2016.

09:12

(Tanjug, file)

"U.S. thinks kidnapped Serbs were killed before airstrike"

The article quoted an unnamed U.S. defense official who said there were "several reasons" to believe this, including that "Libyan first responders who arrived at the bombing site and later took casualties to a nearby hospital had not reported finding Westerners on the scene."

Another, as quoted by the daily, is that "photos circulated of the slain diplomats did not appear to have been taken at or near the bombing site, and did not suggest either was killed in what the official described as a massive strike."

Instead, U.S. officials "believe the diplomats may have already been dead, and their bodies may have already been in Tripoli, at the time of the airstrike," and that "there was never any indication" that it was Islamic State who kidnapped the two employees of the Serbian embassy - Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic - on November 8 in Sabratha, Libya.

The paper also quotes a statement made by a representative of the Serbian embassy in Washington Ivana Mangov, who "declined to say whether the government in Belgrade agreed with the American assessment."

“We would like to underline that the circumstances of the tragic death of Serbian diplomats in Libya is a highly sensitive issue. We have to respect the fact that the investigation on this case is still ongoing," she said.

Earlier, a Pentagon spokesman said there was nothing to indicate Stankovic and Stepic died as a consequence of the bombing. Asked to comment on this statement, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he would have preferred to hear that the Pentagon was "sorry."

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