Embassy personnel
were evacuated last month because of the worsening security situation
in the capital Tripoli. A YouTube video shows dozens of men on the patio
of a swimming pool with some diving into the pool from the balcony of a
building nearby. A group of Islamist-linked militias now control
Tripoli including the international airport. However, the airport is in
ruins with many planes damaged or destroyed, after lengthy clashes
between militia mainly from Misrata and the Zintan brigades allied with General Haftar. Haftar launched a campaign against Islamist militias called Operation Dignity.
The Zintan brigades earlier had attacked and ransacked parliament and
kidnapped a number of Islamist legislators and officials but
nevertheless were charged with providing security for the international
airport.
Mystery planes that the US claims came from the UAE via Egypt carried
out attacks on Islamic-linked militia targets for three nights during
one week. However, the Islamist-linked militias now appear to have
control of Tripoli. Earlier they occupied a military base in Benghazi in
eastern LIbya and routed Libyan Special Forces that are allies of
Haftar and provided security for Benghazi. An umbrella group of
Islamist-linked militia took control of Benghazi with Haftar forces
controlling only an airport on the city perimeter.
The US withdrew all embassy personnel on July 26, driving them out of
Tripoli and over to the Tunisian border under armed guard and with air
support as the security situation near the embassy deteriorated. The
residential annex occupied by the militia is apparently about a mile
from the main embassy compound. All sensitive materials had already been
moved out or destroyed before the evacuation.
The US ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones tweeted
that a video posted on You Tube appeared to show "a residential annex
of the US mission but cannot say definitively". She also added that the US embassy compound "is now being safeguarded and has not been ransacked."
The Islamists convened the General National Council and
elected Omar al-Hasi the new prime minister. He is charged with setting
up an alternative parliament and forming a salvation government in
opposition to the parliament elected in June that convened in the far
eastern city of Tobruk because of insecurity in Benghazi and Tripoli.
Al-Hasi has been urging diplomatic missions to return to Tripoli and
promises them protection.
Apparently an AP reporter was actually invited inside the US embassy annex by the Islamist umbrella group Dawn of Libya:
An Associated Press journalist reported walking through the two-story structure Sunday -- its windows broken -- after an umbrella group for Islamist militias, Dawn of Libya, invited onlookers inside. The journalist reported seeing treadmills, food, televisions and computers still inside.The Central Shield one of the major groups within Libyan Dawn said that it was prepared to negotiate with the UN's special envoy to Libya.
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