BELGRADE, Serbia, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A convoy of 40 cars carrying the families of U.S. diplomats and non-essential embassy staff left the Serbian capital Saturday for Croatia.
Embassy officials said the evacuees were expected to remain away from Belgrade for at least 10 days. The State Department ordered their departure after a demonstration against the independence of Kosovo turned violent Thursday, with rioters invading the embassy and starting fires.
"We are not sufficiently confident that they are safe here," U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter told the BBC.
U.S. citizens living in Belgrade were invited to join the exodus.
Serbian officials said they had identified the body found in the embassy Thursday. He was reported to be a young Serbian man who left Kosovo in 1999 after the region came under NATO control.
While Serbian police arrested about 200 people for alleged participation in the embassy attack, the government also blamed the United States.
"The Serbian government will continue to call on the U.S. to take responsibility for violating international law and taking away a piece of territory from Serbia," said Slovodan Samardzic, the minister responsible for Kosovo.
