Jovica Stepic

Serbia and the US continue to dispute the causes of the deaths in Libya of the two kidnapped Serbian embassy employes, Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic.

Belgrade maintains a US air strike against the Islamic State, ISIS, last week killed them but Pentagon officials blame a "criminal group", which it says used the US bombing as an alibi to kill them.

A commemoration was held on Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for two employees of the Serbian embassy in Tripoli killed last week.

Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic spoke to say his address was "a debt and a humble expression of gratitude to Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic."

Jovica Stepic and Sladjana Stankovic died "from the consequences of a detonation and have not been tortured," the autopsies carried out in Belgrade have shown.

Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic confirmed this for B92 on Wednesday.

An airplane carrying the remains of Serbian citizens Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic landed at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport at 19:25 CET on Tuesday.

Stankovic and Stepic were employees of the Serbian embassy in Tripoli, Libya.

A leading military expert has called for a Serbian parliamentary committee to investigate the kidnap by ISIS of two employees of Belgrade's embassy in Tripoli, after Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic at the weekend revealed a new link between the incident and the arms trade.

The bodies of Jovica Stepic and Sladjana Stankovic, the Serbian embassy employees killed in a U.S. air strike in Libya, should be transferred to Serbia Monday.

General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Veljko Odalovic, who has arrived in Libya, made the announcement.

Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic - employees of the Serbian embassy in Libya kidnapped last year - have "probably been killed in a U.S. airstrike."

This was announced on Saturday by Serbia's foreign minister, Ivica Dacic. Speaking later in the day, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic confirmed that the two Serbians are among the victims.

Two Serbian embassy staff members abducted in Libya in November are believed to have been killed on Feb. 19 in U.S. air strikes on a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) training camp, Serbia's foreign minister said on Feb. 20.

"We are united in grief after the death of our compatriots... Their bodies will be brought to Serbia late on Monday," Vucic told a press conference Saturday.

Serbian PM blamed Ahmed Abashi, a Libyan smuggler, for the kidnapping of two Serbian embassy officials.

Vucic also called on the remaining 250 Serbs to leave Libya immediately.

Two Serbian citizens kidnapped in Libya earlier this month are both alive, PM Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday.

Serbian embassy employees Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic were taken from a convoy of vehicles in the town of Sabratha on November 8.