Police Shoot 'Radical Islamist' Attacker of US Embassy in Sarajevo

Mevlid Jasarevic, the man who reportedly fired at the US embassy in Sarajevo. One guard was wounded, and Mevlid Jasarevic was hit by a police sniper in а shootout in front of the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 29 October 2011. EPA/BGNES

A gunman opened fire against the US Embassy in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo Friday before being taken out by a sniper.

The Bosnian National Radio reported the attacker was a Wahhabist, i.e. a radical Islamist.

"A man, member of the Wahhabi, aged around 40, shot at the US embassy with a Kalashnikov rifle," the report said.

Embassy Spokeswoman Sanja Pejcinovic has confirmed there has been an incident in front of the embassy.

The radical Islamist attacker wounded two police officers guarding the US Embassy before he was shot, and captured.

The man was subsequently identified as Mevlid Jasarevic. One guard was wounded, and Mevlid Jasarevic was hit by a police sniper in s shoot out in front of the embassyin Bosnia and Herzegovina.

International media point out that Bosnia is home to a small minority of followers of Wahhabism, a strict and ultra-conservative brand of Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia.

During Bosnia's 1992-1995 war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs, a large number of volunteers from Muslim nations flocked to the Balkan country to take up arms.

Many of these Muslim fighters stayed on after the conflict and obtained Bosnian citizenship. Some in the mostly moderate Bosnian Muslim community have converted to the more radical Islam preached by several ex-mujahedeen.

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