United States forced to shut down embassy in Libya on Saturday, evacuating diplomats to Tunisia as fighting intensifies between rival militias
Nearly three years after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, the US joined the UN and most agencies in withdrawing from the capital as Libya continued its slide into lawlessness.
The decision was taken after a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli where rival Libyan Islamists have been mounting an assault on the country's main airport over the past week.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said "free-wheeling militia violence" had necessitated the decision, but added that the withdrawal did not signify a break in US commitment to find a political solution in Libya.
"We are suspending our current diplomatic activities at the embassy - not closing the embassy - but suspending the activities..." Mr Kerry said in Paris between meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"We are deeply committed and remain committed to the diplomatic process in Libya."
The precautionary withdrawal reflected the Obama administration's concern about the risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in the eastern city of Benghazi in 2012 after an attack by militants.
The failures at Benghazi remains a hot-button political issue ahead of November's mid-term elections, with the US Congress preparing another investigation into the incident which Republicans accuse the White House of either covering up or deliberately under-playing.
American staff at the Tripoli embassy, which had already been reduced to a minimum as a result of previous violence, left the Libyan capital around dawn and traveled by road to neighbouring Tunisia, said Marie Harf, the State Department spokeswoman.
"We are committed to supporting the Libyan people during this challenging time, and are currently exploring options for a permanent return to Tripoli as soon as the security situation on the ground improves. In the interim, staff will operate from Washington and other posts in the region," she added.
The Pentagon said in statement that F-16 fighter jets and other US aircraft provided security. "The mission was conducted without incident, and the entire operation lasted approximately five hours," the statement said.
The closure is the first of its kind since the US embassy re-opened in Tripoli in September 2011 following the uprising that toppled Libya's long-time leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi, who was cornered and killed in October 2011.
Speculation that an evacuation was imminent had been rife in the State Department for most of last week as fighting intensified around the vicinity of the compound.
Last Friday, Deborah Jones, the current US Ambassador to Libya appealed for fighting near the embassy to stop. "We have not been attacked but our neighborhood a bit 2 close to the action," she wrote on Twitter. "Diplomatic missions 2 B avoided pls."
Libya is now witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since the fall of the Gaddafi regime, prompting not just the US but the UN, aid groups and most other Western foreign envoys to leave.
In Tripoli, clashes near the international airport have forced residents to evacuate their homes nearby after they were hit by shells. On Friday, the official Libyan news agency LANA reported that explosions were heard early in the day near the airport area and continued into the afternoon.
The battle in Tripoli began earlier this month when Islamist-led militias - mostly from the western city of Misrata - launched a surprise assault on the airport, under control of rival militias from the western mountain town of Zintan. Several passenger jets have been destroyed.
The rival militias, made up largely of former anti-Gaddafi rebels, have forced a week-long closure of petrol stations and government offices.
In recent days, armed men have attacked vehicles carrying money from the Central Bank to local banks, also forcing their closure.
Osama al-Fitory, a Tripoli-based journalist, told The Telegraph that families in the Libyan capital heard the sound of military aircraft circling the city in the hours before the evacuation.
“The internet had been cut so we didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “When it came back on we heard about the evacuation from the embassy.”
“The situation here is getting worse and worse,” he added. “There are power cuts all the time, everything is closed. The banks are closed. Nobody is working. You go to some places and life is normal, but it’s not the same Tripoli.
“The government is powerless. They don’t have control of anything. There is no real security, military or police. There are only militias fighting each other.”
