More arrests to come after crossbow attack outside Israeli Embassy, says Serbian president

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday that there would be arrests after what authorities have called a terror attack in front of Israeli Embassy in the capital.

A man in Belgrade was shot dead after attacking a police officer with a crossbow in front of the Israeli Embassy on Saturday.

Vucic called the incident a completely premeditated terrorist attack.

The officer, identified as Milos Jevremovic, used his weapon in self-defense on the attacker, who died due to his injuries. Jevremovic works as a permanent security guard at the embassy.

"The police did not have specific information, but the prosecution did. There is a complete facial treatment by order of the prosecution. The prosecution did that, and from what I heard, I may be wrong, everything was prepared," said the premier, adding that more details were needed to build a judicial case.

Vucic said the attack did not come as a surprise, claiming that a recent UN General Assembly resolution passed last month, which designated July 11 as Srebrenica genocide remembrance day, painted a target on Serbia.

The resolution, which Vucic had earlier objected to as "highly politicized," also condemned the denial of the 1995 genocide in the town of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Muslims were killed despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops, as Serb forces attempted to wrest the territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

-'Foreign services'

The Serbian president also said that authorities would resolve most aspects of the case by Tuesday.

Vucic also claimed that some "foreign services" were trying to expand their influence in Serbia.

"We are working on it, just as you fight against Orthodox extremism, so you fight against Islamic extremism and everyone else," said Vucic.

The police officer was transported to an emergency center in a conscious state, where he underwent surgery to remove an arrow from his neck.

The ministry identified the attacker as 25-year old Milos Zujovic, who moved to live in the city of Novi Pazar.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said a synagogue in Belgrade may have been the initial target of the attack.

He said the reconstruction of Zujovic's movements suggested he first went to the synagogue on Saturday but moved on to the embassy due to the significant police presence around the synagogue.

"This act of terrorism was cut short at the beginning ... That's why I say that our police, with the heroic act of our member Milos Jevremovic, prevented the further course of this act of terrorism at the start," Dacic told reporters after visiting the wounded Jevremovic in the hospital.

Dacic said on Saturday that police had detained another individual near the police facilities as a precaution.

Police on Sunday arrested another person identified as Igor Despotovic on suspicion of having contact with the attacker Zujovic.

Zujovic was convicted in April of inciting the commission of terrorist acts.

A higher court sentenced him to a first-instance prison sentence of three years, while an appeals court was to make the final decision, given that this was a second first-instance verdict.

He was declared guilty of continuously and publicly, through videos, photos and texts, expressed and transmitted ideas that indirectly encourage the commission of the terrorism.