Armed faction seizes annex of evacuated US embassy
Members of a Libyan militia have taken over an abandoned annex of the United States Embassy in Tripoli but have not broken into the main compound where the US evacuated all of its staff last month, US officials said yesterday.
A YouTube video showed the breach of the diplomatic facility by what was believed to be a militia group mostly from the northwestern city of Misrata. Dozens of men, some armed, were seen gleefully crowded onto the patio of a swimming pool, with some diving in from the balcony of a nearby building.
Libya has been rocked by the worst factional violence since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi, and a Misrata-led alliance, part of it which is Islamistleaning, now controls the capital.
A takeover of the larger embassy compound could deliver another symbolic blow to Washington over its policy toward Libya, which Western governments fear is teetering toward becoming a failed state three years after a Nato-backed war ended Gaddafi’s rule.
The US withdrew all embassy personnel from Tripoli on July 26, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia, amid escalating clashes between rival factions.
The annex, apparently consisting of diplomatic residences and other facilities, lies about 2 kilometres from the embassy compound.
All sensitive materials were destroyed or removed from US diplomatic sites in the capital before the evacuation.
Security in Libya is an especially contentious subject for the US because of the September 11, 2012, attack on the US mission in Benghazi, in which militants killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Republican lawmakers have kept up steady criticism of President Barack Obama over his Administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack, and they have also cited Libya’s latest unrest as another example of what they see as his failed policy in the volatile region.
‘‘Libya now is collapsed into a failed state,’’ US Senator John McCain told CBS’s Face the Nation programme.
US Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones, in a message on Twitter, said the
A group of Islamistleaning forces has taken over this annex of the United States Embassy in Tripoli, but has not yet broken into the main complex, about 2 kilometres away, which the staff have already evacuated. YouTube recording, posted by an amateur videographer, appeared to show ‘‘a residential annex of the US mission but cannot say definitively.’’
Jones, now based in Malta, said, however, that the embassy compound ‘‘is now being safeguarded and has not been ransacked.’’
The US Government believes that while the annex has been seized, the main compound has not suffered a similar fate.
Later yesterday, a senior State Department official said: ‘‘We’ve seen the reports and videos and are seeking additional details. At this point, we believe the embassy compound itself remains secure but we continue to monitor the situation on the ground, which remains very fluid.
‘‘The primary reason the United States temporarily relocated our personnel and operations from Tripoli recently was the ongoing fighting between militias occurring very close to our compound,’’ the official said. ‘‘We continue to work with the government of Libya and other parties on issues of concern.’’
The Misrata-led groups refuse to recognise Libya’s central government and elected parliament, which have moved to the remote eastern city of Tobruk.
The Misrata forces have set up an alternative parliament which is assembling a rival government headed by Omar al-Hasi, an Islamist.
Hasi called on Sunday for diplomatic missions to return to Tripoli, saying foreigners would be protected.
The North African oil producer appears at risk of splitting or even sliding into civil war as political divisions and fighting among former rebels have created uncertainty and chaos.