***Serbian Prime Minister Shot Fighting for his life***

PMSNBC | Stardate: 0303.12

[The Wizard]

Can't find anything else yet

[The Wizard]

shot outside his office...

[Petronski]

Franz Ferdinand?

[Dog]

Shot...........when??

[Sacajaweau]

bump

[kattracks]

Serb Leader Hurt in Assassination Attempt

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro, Mar 12, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic - one of the leaders of the opposition that toppled Slobodan Milosevic - was seriously wounded Thursday in an assassination attempt, a radio station reported.

Independent B-92 radio said Djindjic was shot in the chest while entering the government building in Belgrade and that his condition was "very serious."

Sources from Djindjic's Cabinet told The Associated Press that Djindjic sustained two shots in his stomach and back, and that doctors were "fighting for his life" in Belgrade's emergency hospital.

[The Wizard]

Serbian PM assassination attempt was shot... looking for more

[guitfiddlist]

World War to follow...

[The Wizard]

today is wednesday, that's their typo right?

[steveegg]

Any guesses as to who shot him? My money's on those "nice" Kosovar Islamists we're still helping despite their hostility toward us.

[ChicagoRepublican]

Zoran Djindjic is a philosophy major who studied in Yugoslavia, Germany and was the former Mayor of Yugoslavia. He was one of the leading members of the opposition to Slobo.

[Peach]

Sounds like they got the shooter (from another poster - looking for another one). Awful news.

[Dog]

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was shot and injured in an apparent assassination attempt in front of the main government building in Belgrade, a police source told Reuters.

The source said Djindjic was hit in the chest by two large caliber sniper bullets fired from a distance. He was undergoing an operation in hospital and his condition was "serious," the source added.

A surgeon from a Belgrade medical center confirmed Djindjic had been taken to hospital. "He is undergoing an operation now," he told Reuters.

B92 radio said Djindjic had been shot twice.

Last month, Serbian police said they wanted to re-arrest on suspicion of attempted murder a driver freed by a court after his truck narrowly missed a car carrying Djindjic.

Djindjic has said he does not rule out the possibility that the incident, in which a truck suddenly swerved out of its lane toward a convoy of cars carrying him, was an assassination attempt.

He suggested it may have been linked to his government's efforts to stamp out the organized crime that flourished during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, ousted in 2000.

[kcvl]

Posted on Wed, Mar. 12, 2003

Serb Leader Hurt in Assassination Attempt
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic - one of the leaders of the opposition that toppled Slobodan Milosevic - was seriously wounded Thursday in an assassination attempt, a radio station reported.

Independent B-92 radio said Djindjic was shot in the chest while entering the government building in Belgrade and that his condition was "very serious."

Sources from Djindjic's Cabinet told The Associated Press that Djindjic sustained two shots in his stomach and back, and that doctors were "fighting for his life" in Belgrade's emergency hospital.

Two people were arrested and one was injured in the shooting, witnesses said.

The building was sealed off by heavy state security, and three ambulances were parked in front.

Djindjic appeared to have been targeted last month, when a truck suddenly cut into the lane in which his motorcade was traveling to Belgrade's airport. The motorcade narrowly avoided a collision, and Djindjic later dismissed the Feb. 21 alleged assassination attempt as a "futile effort" that could not stop democratic reforms.

Last month, Djindjic's government asked NATO for permission to send troops back to Kosovo, nearly four years after the NATO warplanes bombed Serb forces to oust them from the province, if there is a war in Iraq.

Djindjic said Serb troops would fill any security vacuum in Kosovo if NATO withdraws troops for military action in Iraq. However, no plans have been announced to reduce the number of troops in the peacekeeping force because of the current Iraqi crisis.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO fought an air war to end then-Yugoslav President Milosevic's crackdown on the province's independence-minded ethnic Albanians. A NATO-led peacekeeping force of 30,000 troops is stationed in Kosovo, which remains part of Yugoslavia.

[Peach]

Mistake - think I mis-read another post that they got the shooter. Any witnesses?

[katana]

World War to follow...

It wouldn't be the first time, but now there isn't anything like the balance of powers and domino system of alliances that led to WWI. It will be interesting to find out the religion of the assassin.

[steveegg]

Yep. Original wire report here has Thursday on it, and by my watch, Yugolavia has better than 10 hours before it's Thursday.

[The Wizard]

thanks

[steveegg]

That's what AP is reporting, but they're also reporting that it happened tomorrow.

[kcvl]

Sources from Djindjic's Cabinet told The Associated Press that Djindjic sustained two shots in his stomach and back, and that doctors were "fighting for his life" in Belgrade's emergency hospital.

Two people were arrested and one was injured in the shooting, witnesses said.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/5374061.htm