Former Bosnian Serb commander killed

Police in Bosnia say a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary commander, Ljubisa Savic, has been shot dead in the eastern town of Bijeljina.

He was travelling in his car when unidentified gunmen fired from another vehicle on Wednesday night.

There were no details of the motive behind the attack.

Mr Savic was commander of the Panthers paramilitary unit during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, which correspondents say has been involved in the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims. He was one of the founders of the hardline Serb Democratic Party, the SDS, of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

After the war Mr Savic quit the SDS and joined moderates, serving as deputy police chief of the Bosnian Serb Republic.

He was sacked in 1998 for abuse of authority in the investigation into the killing of another Serb police officer.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service