on august 25, 2011, serbia officially recognized the national transitional council as the ruling government in libya. however, the relations with the transitional government were strained from the very beginning of the libyan civil war when five serbs were captured by anti-gaddafi rebels under the suspicion that they fought as mercenaries for muammar gaddafi. as of april 2012 all five still remained in detainment in libya. libya al youm then reported that more mercenaries had been flown in from banja luka. the serbian minister of defence, dragan sutanovac, denied reports that serbian warplanes had bombed anti-qaddafi protestors.