BELGRADE: A man has been shot dead by Serbian police, the interior minister said Sunday, after being connected with the attacker behind a crossbow shooting at the Israeli embassy in Belgrade in June.
Interior minister Ivica Dacic said the man fired shots toward the police near the southern city of Novi Pazar late Saturday and refused to surrender.
“During the arrest, he resisted, fired three to four shots at the police, and members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit neutralized him,” Dacic told local media.
He added that the man had previously been convicted and jailed for terrorist offenses.
The police operation took place in the village of Hotkovo, near Novi Pazar — a historical and political center of Serbia’s Bosniak Muslim minority.
Police said the man was wanted in connection with another man killed by police in Belgrade on June 29th, after shooting a police officer in the neck with a crossbow outside the Israeli embassy.
The attack in the Serbian capital was characterised as a “terrorist act” by officials, who described the assailant as a Serbian convert to Islam.
The man killed Saturday night was the landlord of the June attacker, police said, who had lived in his apartment in Novi Pazar prior to his attack at the embassy.
He had been on the run since the June attack, the police minister stated.
Local media describe the man killed in Novi Pazar as a “well-known follower” of the Wahhabi movement — a purist form of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia.
The interior ministry confirmed that he was arrested in 2007, and sentenced to 13.5 years in prison as part of a group that engaged in an armed conflict with police officers in the village of Trnava, near Novi Pazar.
At that time, 14 of his associates were also arrested.
They were charged with planning terrorist attacks in Belgrade and Novi Pazar.
Serbian police kill armed man in arrest shootout
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Serbian police kill armed man in arrest shootout
Norway says Russia, China seek to up presence on Svalbard
- The second-largest town on Svalbard is almost entirely populated by Russian nationals
- China’s presence was becoming more visible in the Arctic
OSLO: While global tensions have focused on Greenland, Norway’s military intelligence service said on Friday that Russia and China were looking to increase their presence on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
In its annual threat assessment, the Norwegian Intelligence Service said that “from Moscow’s perspective, Svalbard’s strategic location makes it necessary to maintain a Russian presence there.”
The second-largest town on Svalbard, the coal mining settlement of Barentsburg, is almost entirely populated by Russian nationals.
“There are signs that the Kremlin is looking to make the Barentsburg settlement less dependent on Norwegian supply and transport infrastructure
“Regular port visits by ships from Russia constitute one planned step in this direction,” the agency said.
It said Beijing was “also expected to work toward enhancing the Chinese presence in Svalbard.”
“The archipelago is strategically placed for future shipping routes and polar research, which are central to cementing China’s role as an Arctic actor,” it said in its report.
It noted that China’s presence was becoming more visible in the Arctic and that five Chinese research vessels had operated in the Arctic Ocean in 2025, compared to three in 2024 and one in previous years.
The service also noted that tensions between the United States and Europe over Greenland and security in the Arctic “could serve both Russian and Chinese interests.”
- ‘Crumbling’ world order -
Andreas Stensones, head of the service, said in the report that Moscow and Beijing stood to benefit as “international cooperation and institutions are being undermined.”
“The same dynamic is evident in the Arctic. Much of the foundation for Norwegian security is being challenged and we must accept that the world order as we have known it is crumbling,” Stensones said.
Speaking at a press conference, Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik noted: “2026 has so far been characterised by great uncertainty.”
He pointed in particular to US President Donald Trump’s vocally stated desire to take over Greenland.
Trump’s threats against Greenland last month plunged NATO — of which Norway is a member — into its deepest crisis in years.
“There is no denying that relations across the Atlantic are more unpredictable,” Sandvik said.
Stensones told the same press conference that Washington’s actions affected how both Moscow and Beijing were thinking and acting.
“In their view, western unity has already begun to crack, and they see great opportunities to strengthen their influence and secure control in their neighboring areas,” he told reporters.
