BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Serbian police said they arrested 15 suspected Islamic militants Saturday, a day after a gunman in the group fired shots at the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia.
The arrests occurred about 5 a.m. local time in the southwest Serbian towns of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin, Belgrade radio station B-92 reported. The three towns are home to large Muslim communities.
"This morning at 5 a.m. a (police) operation was launched against the extremist Islamist Wahhabi movement in the territory of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin," Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.
Police seized phones, computers and laptops, he said.
The gunman who fired at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo Friday was identified as Wahhabi Mevlid Jasarevic of Novi Pazar.
Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, condemned the attack.
"The American government and people have supported us in the most difficult moments of our history, and nobody has the right to endanger the friendly relations between our two countries," he said.
Two Bosnian police officers suffered non-critical injuries before the gunman was subdued.
Sarajevo-based news service SensServis posted video of the gunman walking calmly after firing at the embassy, and a Bosnian television station posted a video that appears to have been taken as the gunman was shot by a police sniper, The New York Times reported.
B-92, citing a Sarajevo newspaper, said more than one attacker might have been involved and pointed out the gunman wore a beard like those of Islamist radicals.
The Serbian Interior Ministry said it had increased security in front of the U.S. Embassy.
The Times said the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz reported Jasarevic had a police record, including an arrest last November for carrying a large knife outside a meeting of foreign ambassadors in his hometown of Novi Pazar.
