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Post by Nictoshek on Jul 27, 2014 10:05:28 GMT -7
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Post by Nictoshek on Jul 28, 2014 8:54:45 GMT -7
 Smoke billows from a burning oil depot near Tripoli airport on Monday.Anarchy in Libya: Tripoli Fuel Depot Ablaze After Rocket Attack Reuters First published July 28th 2014 TRIPOLI, Libya - A rocket hit a fuel storage tank containing 1.5 million gallons of gasoline, triggering a major blaze as rival brigades of former rebels fought for control of Tripoli's main airport. A huge cloud of black smoke billowed across the capital's skyline on Monday and Libya's government asked for international help to try to contain the disaster. A spokesman for the National Oil Company said the blaze was burning "out of control," adding that firefighters had withdrawn from the area. Foreign governments have looked on powerless as anarchy sweeps across the North African oil producer, three years after NATO bombardment helped topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The U.S., United Nations and Turkish embassies have already shut operations after the worst violence since the 2011 uprising. Two weeks of clashes among rival factions killed nearly 160 people in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi. Since Gadhafi's demise, Libya has struggled to keep its transition to democracy on track, with its parliament deadlocked by infighting among factions and militias often using threats of force against political rivals. Many heavily armed former anti-Gadhafi fighters refuse to hand over weapons and continue to rule the streets. |
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Post by Nictoshek on Jul 29, 2014 6:31:06 GMT -7
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Post by Nictoshek on Aug 31, 2014 17:24:32 GMT -7
Libyan armed faction takes over U.S. Embassy annex in Tripoli
By Mark Hosenball and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON Sun Aug 31, 2014
(Reuters) - Members of a Libyan militia have taken over an abandoned annex of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli but have not broken into the main compound where the United States evacuated all of its staff last month, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
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 Islamist-leaning, now controls the capital.
A takeover of the 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 just three years after a NATO-backed war ended Gaddafi’s rule.
The United States withdrew all embassy personnel from Tripoli on July 26, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under armed guard, amid escalating clashes between rival factions.
The annex, apparently consisting of diplomatic residences, is located about a mile (2 km) from the main embassy compound. All sensitive materials were destroyed or removed from U.S. diplomatic sites in the capital before the evacuation.
Security in Libya is an especially contentious subject for the United States because of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. 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 the Democratic president’s failed policy in the volatile region.
“Libya now is collapsed into a failed state," U.S. Senator John McCain told CBS's "Face the Nation" program. "That is what happens when you lead from behind."
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones, in a message on Twitter, said the YouTube recording, apparently posted by an amateur videographer, appeared to show “a residential annex of the U.S. 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 U.S. government believes the main embassy compound is still intact and has not been seized, a U.S. official in Washington told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said that while the pool area of the residential annex was full of intruders, there was no indication of any similar scene at the embassy itself.
The Misrata-led groups refuse to recognize 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 Saturday 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 who helped topple Gaddafi have created uncertainty and chaos.
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