Spy chief's revelation blows open mystery of Jill Dando's unsolved murder

former spymaster has admitted that one of his commandos carried out an attack abroad at around the time was killed.

Dragan Filipović, was a leading member the Serbian security services when he masterminded a "secret reprisal action" in the spring of 1999 that caused "great confusion in Europe". At the time, Ulemek, then 31, led the unit Filipović used to target opponents of brutal Serb dictator Slobadan Milosevic. The Yugoslav war was raging and UK planes Within hours of her murder, the took a call claiming the death was in response.

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A man said: "Tell your Prime Minister, in Belgrade 15 people were killed, so 14 more to go." It was feared that the former Crimewatch presenter had been targeted because she had fronted a charity appeal for Kosovan refugees 20 days earlier.

Filipović revealed that he had dispatched several of his special forces soldiers into Europe to carry out revenge killings in response to the bombings which began on March 24, 1999.

Known as Major Fića, he wrote: "Among others, Serbs were suspected as potential perpetrators, which resulted in a hunt and increased control of Yugoslav citizens." A source with knowledge of the Serbian security services told the Daily he is convinced Filipović's claim is true.

He said: "I have very little doubt that this assassination was planned and executed by some circles in Serbia."

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It comes as police are being urged to launch a review after a van driver said a man he nearly hit close to Jill's .

The Mirror can reveal that British security officials gave five warnings that Serbian commandos might be planning attacks abroad before Jill was murdered. Recently declassified documents show concerns were raised repeatedly by the MoD and Nato in April 1999.

None of the secret files were made available to the Met Police team investigating Jill's murder, it is understood. In a Disasters Emergency Committee appeal made on April 6, Jill called Kosovo a "former Yugoslavian region", a description that would have enraged ultra-nationalist Filipovic who saw it as the "cradle" of his country.

In his 2008 book "Anatomy of the Globalist Stink", Filipović railed against non-governmental organizations which he says were based on the doctrine of "special war" and were designed to destabilise foreign leaders in the interests of the West.

Jill's BBC appeal was on behalf of some of the UK's largest NGOs, potentially making her a legitimate target in Filipovic's warped view. The Serbian source said of Jill's appeal: "It could be perceived as part of a 'special war' against Milosevic and Serbia and the secret service could have taken some [action]."

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At the time Milorad "Legija" Ulemek was a senior member of the Jedinica za specijalne operacije (JSO) - a 500-man unit of the Serbian Intelligence Service that Filipovic founded and selected his operatives from.

The source said that it was Filipović, now in his 60s, who headhunted Ulemek for his JSO unit after they met while fighting in Croatia and Bosnia during the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s. Filipović persuaded the former French Foreign Legion soldier to shift allegiances from warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan's Serbian Volunteer Guard, or Tigers, the source said.

Major Fića was believed to have accompanied Ulemek when he attempted to assassinate Serb politician Vuk Draskovic in October 1999, the source added. Ulemek later told a court that he contacted Filipović's boss to make himself available for a "special operation" on April 15, 1999, eleven days before Jill was killed.

The ruthless killer said that he was fighting in Kosovo when he made the offer to the head of the security services, Radomir Markovic. Markovic and Ulemek are serving 40 years in jail for plotting two assassinations for brutal dictator Milosevic, who died in 2006, and his powerful nationalist wife Mira Markovic.

Known as the "Lady Macbeth of the Balkans", Filipović was close to Mira who was suspected of plotting state-sponsored assassinations. She later fled to where she died in 2019.

The Serbian source said in "the terminal phase" of the Milosevic government the security services were controlled by a "notorious" inner circle close to his wife. He said: "In their criminal minds the idea was conceived of eliminating political opponents and journalists."

One of a handful of European Kung Fu masters to train with Shaolin monks, Filipović is understood to have fled to as Curuvija's killers were arrested. He revealed in his book that he was Special Advisor to Radomir Markovic in 1999.

Filipović said his boss, then head of the Serbian State Security Services, known as "DB", gave him "full independence" and granted him all the personnel, spying and cash he needed.

Filipović wrote: "My responsibilities included planning, organizing and carrying out special intelligence and subversive actions against NATO member states, as well as states that supported them during the attack on Yugoslavia, with the aim of endangering their political stability and combat readiness. The tasks particularly included secret reprisal actions deep inside enemy territory."

He also provides an insight into how his unit worked by revealing details of an operation that was aborted. After the Nato bombing started, Filipović sent another JSO soldier to assassinate American billionaire philanthropist , who he described as a "fanatical enemy of the Serbian people".

He saw Soros, who has spent billions funding NGOs promoting progressive and liberal causes around the , as being behind a sinister globalist network.

Filipović claimed: "In a situation where the NATO aggression, which Soros was the initiator of, was taking place intensively, the justification of a radical approach towards him was not questioned."

He said that it was established that Soros, now 94, was planning to visit a "small attractive tourist spot" in an unnamed European country that he occasionally visited.

The experienced hitman chosen for that task, codenamed "Mongoose", knew "the language and culture" of the target country and had "many friendly connections there". Ulemek spoke good English having lived in London as a young man and had a number of contacts in the UK, the source said.

In one of the many books he has penned in prison, entitled The Boys from Brazil, Ulemek writes about fighting for the JSO with an artillery expert called "Mongoose" in Kosovo in the spring of 1999. The two chapters for that year only cover March and May. There is no entry for April.

"Mongoose" has been identified in the Serbian media as former JSO soldier Milenko Prodanović. Filipović said of Mongoose: "He was trained to use unconventional means suitable for carrying out this task, which was significant, because due to intensified police controls, moving around Europe with any standard weapons was almost impossible."

The bespoke ammunition used to kill Jill had never been seen before in the UK. And experts were unable to specify what type of gun was used due to the lack of markings on the bullet, raising the possibility it was also a customised pistol that could be smuggled across borders. Ulemek, now 57, is nicknamed "Legoinnaire" because he was an ex-sergeant in the French Foreign Legion where he specialied in sniper combat and sabotage.

Filipović said Mongoose crossed into Europe illegally before travelling overland to his final destination. It is likely Ulemek would have done the same thing, using his connections with gangsters involved in cigarette smuggling to enter Europe by boat through Italy, the source said.

Filipović wrote that he was ordered to halt the plots by Markovic in June 1999, when a peace treaty was signed. He wrote: "In the meantime, one of the previously initiated actions, although with considerable delay, was successfully implemented, which caused a great confusion in Europe."

He does not specify what the "radical action" was, though the clear implication is that it was a state-sponsored assassination. Mr Soros did not reply when we contacted his Open Society Foundations.