Attacker with two knives shot dead outside Israel's embassy in Belgrade

A man armed with two knives attacked a security officer guarding Israel's embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, and was shot dead by the officer, Ynet reported. The guard was lightly wounded. According to Ynet and the Israeli broadcaster N12, the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the assault.

Serbia's interior minister described the incident as an act of terrorism and said the country's terror alert had been raised to its highest level. Israel's Foreign Ministry said no members of the embassy staff were hurt and that the mission was closed at the time, which it described as night. N12 quoted the ministry as saying the assailant had been "neutralised by the local police" and that the matter is being investigated by the relevant authorities.

What Serbian officials have said

The main official account so far comes from Ivica Dačić, who serves as deputy prime minister and interior minister in what N12 described as Serbia's transitional government. According to N12, Dačić said the security services had been following the suspect before the attack, and that information gathered up to that point showed the attacker was known to the authorities as someone identified with the Islamic State group, often called ISIS or, in Hebrew and Arabic, Daesh. The Israeli news outlet News.co.il likewise reported that the minister said the attacker was known to Serbian security bodies as an Islamic State operative.

Ynet added that the attacker had been under surveillance and that his Instagram account displayed an Islamic State flag. That detail has not been attributed by the reports to a named official.

The Jerusalem Post, in its headline, attributed its account of the attack and the attacker's death to Serbian police.

Who the attacker was

Two outlets reported that the assailant was a minor. The Times of Israel described him as a minor in its headline, and N12 said the attacker was reported to be underage. Neither outlet, in the material available, gave his age, name or nationality.

The guard and how the attack ended

The reports agree that the person targeted was a member of the Serbian security forces posted to protect the embassy, not an Israeli employee of the mission. They describe him differently: Ynet and News.co.il call him a police officer, N12 says he was a member of the gendarmerie, a Serbian police force, and English-language headlines refer to him simply as a guard. N12 reported that the officer returned fire and killed the attacker. Ynet said the officer was lightly injured.

Israel's Foreign Ministry, which runs the country's diplomatic missions abroad, used the phrase "attempted terror attack" in the statement reported by The Times of Israel, and said the assailant had been neutralised. In Israeli official and media usage, "neutralised" (in Hebrew, nutral) can mean an attacker was stopped, wounded or killed; in this case the other reports state that the attacker died.

A point of disagreement in the reports

One Times of Israel liveblog entry attributed the "terror attack" description to Serbia's foreign minister, while Ynet, N12 and News.co.il all attributed that description, and the decision to raise the alert level, to the interior minister. The reports do not explain the difference, and this article does not resolve it.

Why the location matters

Belgrade is the capital of Serbia, a country in the Balkans in southeastern Europe. The officer targeted here belonged to Serbia's own security forces rather than to the embassy staff. The Jerusalem Post filed its report under its coverage of antisemitism and the diaspora, reflecting how attacks near Israeli and Jewish sites abroad are followed by Jewish communities outside Israel.

What the reports do not say

• The attacker's name, exact age and nationality have not been given in the reports.
• None of the reports gives the precise time of the attack beyond the Foreign Ministry's reference to night.
• It is not clear how long Serbian security services had been monitoring the suspect, or why he was not stopped before the attack.
• The reports do not say whether anyone else is suspected of involvement, or whether any arrests have been made.
• The nature and extent of the guard's injuries have not been described beyond being light.
• No report states whether the attacker intended to target the embassy itself or the officer outside it.