Serbia Raises Terror Alert to Highest Level After Knife Attack at Israeli Embassy
Written by AI from nbcnews.com's report. Not checked by a person.
A knife-wielding minor attacked a police officer outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade, shouting 'Allahu Akbar'; the officer killed the assailant in self-defense, and Serbia immediately raised its terrorism alert to the highest level.
In the early hours of Wednesday, an armed minor from the western Serbian town of Šabac attacked a member of Serbia's elite Gendarmerie standing guard at the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade. The assailant carried two knives and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as he lunged at the officer, who was slightly wounded in the face before killing the attacker in self-defense. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić classified the incident as a terrorist attack and said Serbian security services had already been monitoring the attacker as a suspected supporter of the Islamic State, noting that he had posted the group's black flag on his Instagram account. Dačić raised the national terror threat to the highest level and stepped up police presence at key locations across the country. The Israeli Embassy has been targeted before: in June 2024, a crossbow-wielding attacker wounded an officer at the same site and was shot and killed by that officer. Wednesday's attack came just days after a key early parliamentary election on Sunday in which long-ruling former President Aleksandar Vučić was defeated by a youth-led movement after almost two years of protests against him.
