Belgrade: Serbian police on Saturday detained 17
people suspected of belonging to an extremist Islamic sect
following a shooting incident outside the US embassy in
neighbouring Bosnia.
The arrests in the southern, Muslim-dominated region of
Sandzak, were made before dawn by an anti-terrorist unit.
Computers and mobile phones belonging to the suspects were
impounded.
Yesterday, a man from Sandzak fired an automatic weapon
outside the US Embassy in Bosnia in what authorities called a
terrorist attack.
A policeman and the gunman were wounded. The embassy said
none of its employees was hurt.
The shooter was identified as Mevlid Jasarevic from Novi
Pazar, the administrative capital of Sandzak.
Serbian officials said he is a follower of the Wahhabi
sect, a conservative Islamic teaching that is rooted in Saudi
Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Police said in a statement that 18 houses were searched.
The arrested people are believed to be Jasarevic`s associates,
it added.
"The action against the extremist Islamic Wahhabi movement
started at five in the morning," Serbia`s Interior Minister
Ivica Dacic told state Tanjug news agency.
PTI
