Explosive device thrown into US embassy
A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up after throwing an explosive device into the US embassy compound in Podgorica, Montenegro, yesterday.
Montenegrin authorities in Podgorica have not released any theories as to the motive for the attack in the country which recently joined Nato despite opposition from some of the population and from where a number of jihadists have travelled to Iraq and Syria.
“In front of the @USEmbassyMNE building in #Podgorica, #Montenegro an unknown person committed suicide with an explosive device. Immediately before, that person threw an explosive device,” the government tweeted, saying the device was “most probably” a hand grenade.
An AFP correspondent was unable to reach the site as police sealed off the area.
A US State Department spokesperson confirmed “a small explosion near the US Embassy compound” saying officials were “working closely with police to identify the assailant[s]”.
On its Twitter account, the embassy said it had cancelled all visa services for yesterday, adding that access for US citizens “will be available today on an emergency basis”.
A guard at the sports centre who asked not to be named said he “heard two explosions, one after another”.
“Police came very quickly and the body of a man was taken away,” he told reporters.. The heavily-secured embassy building is located on the outskirts of Podgorica’s city centre, near the secret police headquarters and the Moraca river.
Montenegro, a small Adriatic state of some 660 000 people, joined Nato last May.
The decision to become a member provoked violent protests by the pro-Russian opposition in 2015.
In October 2016, authorities said they had thwarted a plot by proRussian militants to storm parliament and oust the pro-Western government on the eve of general elections.
In October 2011, the US embassy in Sarajevo in neighbouring Bosnia was the target of a militant attack.
According to figures published in November by a regional thinktank, a thousand people from the Western Balkans have gone to join jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq since 2012.
Twenty-three of those were from Montenegro, whose population is predominantly Orthodox Christian.