Dacic: Killing of policeman most likely terrorist act by Kosovo Albanian structures

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Thursday the killing of one police officer and the wounding of another in a shooting in Loznica, western Serbia, last night was most likely a terrorist attack by ethnic Albanian structures in Kosovo-Metohija.

Speaking to the RTS, Dacic said police were trying to determine whether the attacker was a man whose ID and passport had been found in a car from which he had fired several shots at traffic police officers, or his brother, who escaped from a Kosovo-Metohija prison on July 6.

"He killed a police officer, committing an evident terrorist act coming from (ethnic) Albanian structures in Kosovo-Metohija. This cannot be a coincidence and that is why the case will be dealt with by the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime, as this is an attack on police officers on duty," Dacic said.

He said more than 150 police troops from various units - including the special counter-terrorist unit, the helicopter unit, the border police and the Gendarmerie - were looking for the shooter, who is on the run.

Dacic said there was no information about the shooter's entry to Serbia and that a German ID card and a passport issued by the provisional Pristina institutions to the name of Artan Hajrizi had been found in the car.

He noted that Hajrizi's brother, who has killed a Russian soldier in Kosovo-Metohija and escaped from prison several times, might have committed the attack while carrying his brother's personal documents.

"It cannot be a coincidence, I think this is a part of an organised destabilisation and an attack," Dacic said, adding that an autopsy had shown that Nikola Krsmanovic, the police officer killed in the attack, had been shot in the head and not in the chest, as reported earlier.

Dacic noted that he had spoken with the wounded police officer and that he was feeling well.

The two were shot during a routine check of a vehicle in Loznica last night, the RINA news agency reported.