WASHINGTON--The Obama administration said on Saturday it has
evacuated its personnel from Tripoli as fighting between warring
militias in Libya has reached the capital.
Officials said the evacuation was conducted over land, with the
State Department driving personnel from the American embassy in
Tripoli to Tunisia. U.S. military units provided security, flying
fighter jets, surveillance planes and positioning response forces
in V-22 tilt rotor aircraft in the area to respond to potential
threats, officials said. The evacuation was completed without
incident, officials said.
The State Department said the embassy move was temporary.
"Due to the continuing violence resulting from clashes between
Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in
Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of
Libya," Marie Harf, a State department spokeswoman, said.
The Obama administration was accused of not moving quickly
enough to evacuate its diplomats in Libya ahead of the Sept. 11,
2012 attack on its facilities in Benghazi that killed the
Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.
In Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that U.S.
embassy operations in Tripoli had only been suspended due to the
"freewheeling militia violence" in the Libyan capital. " We will
return the moment the security situation permits us to do so," Mr.
Kerry said before a meeting with foreign ministers from Turkey and
Qatar.
Most of the U.S. embassy personnel will continue working on
Libya issues from American diplomatic missions in Tunisia, Mr.
Kerry said. The U.S. will also continue communicating to Libya's
leadership through the British embassy in Tripoli and other foreign
embassies.
"We call on all Libyans to engage in the political process and
to come together to avoid the violence," Mr. Kerry said.
The evacuation on Saturday took about five hours, said Rear Adm.
John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.
Adm. Kirby said the Marine Corps security guards who provide
security at the embassy were also relocated. He said the evacuation
was done at the request of the embassy.
Ms. Harf said that embassy personnel would return to Libya when
the security situation improves. U.S. diplomatic staff will operate
out of Washington and other embassies in the region until the State
Department determines they can return to the embassy in
Tripoli.
In recent months, the Libyan government has struggled to clamp
down on violence from militias and keep control of the country.
For nearly two weeks, an Islamist militia from the coastal city
of Misrata has been fighting a more secular militia hailing from
the mountain town of Zintan for the control of an airport 30
kilometers south of the capital.
The fighting has killed dozens and now has moved into Tripoli
itself, forcing evacuations of expatriates working for foreign oil
firms as well as a large part of the United Nations staff. With the
capital all but paralyzed, residents on Saturday were reporting
intense rocket fire, along with power and water cuts and fuel
shortages.
Libya's interim prime minister, Abdullah al-Thani, has ruled out
a direct foreign intervention but has said it is seeking some other
forms of international assistance.
Libya's justice minister, Salah Elmarghani, said he had been in
contact with the International Criminal Court to start looking into
possible war crimes being committed. "We warned that war crimes are
being committed in Libya," he said.
In a statement Friday, the prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, said he was troubled by "reports of
alleged attacks carried out against the civilian population and
civilian objects in Tripoli" and Benghazi.
Fighting between a renegade general and Islamists also has been
going on for weeks in the Eastern city of Benghazi.
Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com, BenoƮt
Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com and Jay Solomon at
jay.solomon@wsj.com
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