Serbian police shoot dead assailant at Israeli Embassy

A knife-wielding assailant attacked a police guard outside the Israeli Embassy in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, overnight to Wednesday, slightly wounding the officer before being shot dead by him, Serbia's interior minister said.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the attacker, whom he described as a minor, had been monitored by security agencies as a supporter of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS).

Israel's Foreign Ministry later confirmed an "attempted terrorist attack" near its embassy in Belgrade, adding that no personnel were injured and the incident was being investigated.

The attacker was thought to come from the western Serbian town of Sabac and "kept the black flag in support of the 'Islamic State' on his Instagram” account," according to the minister.

Dacic said the assailant shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic, during the attack on the guard. According to Dacic, the guard killed the attacker in self-defense.

He said police were treating the incident as a terrorist attack, with the terrorism threat level raised to its highest, or "red alert."

"This means tighter security checks and an increased police presence at sensitive sites, including infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather," he said.

The attack came just days after key early parliamentary election in Serbia and one day after Israel held its parliamentary vote, with no clear result yet in sight.

In June 2024, an attacker with a crossbow seriously wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the same embassy in Belgrade before being shot and killed by police.

That attacker was identified as a 25-year-old Islamic convert from a village near the capital who had become radicalized.