Gunmen attack Russian embassy in Libya's Tripoli

Neil

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The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, came under fire and there were attempts to get into Russia's diplomatic compound, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. One of the attackers was killed.

"There has been an incident in Tripoli tonight, in which there was shelling and attempts to enter the territory of the Russian embassy in this country," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told RT.

Libyan authorities say one assailant was killed. Four others were injured, AP reported. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were no injuries among embassy staff.

The ITAR-TASS news agency's witnesses said attackers tore down a Russian flag. The situation was soon brought under control and there are currently no intruders on Russia's embassy territory.

According to reports, around 10 attackers drove to the embassy in two cars. Libyan News Agency (LANA) reports that they first opened fire on a parked diplomatic vehicle.

A video still from Ruptly's exclusive footage shows a car burning in an almost deserted street outside the embassy.


After setting the car ablaze, the attackers opened fire on the diplomatic building itself, LANA reported. But as security forces arrived at the scene, they drove off in an unknown direction.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz visited the Russian Embassy following the attack to assess the damage. Zeidan voiced his gratitude to the security forces for intervening and protecting Russian diplomats.

Libya's Interior Ministry believes the attack on the Russian embassy could have been a reaction to the reported killing of a Libyan air force pilot by a Russian woman on Tuesday.

Some local media earlier reported that the woman was arrested by Libyan authorities and is accused of murdering the pilot, writing offensive graffiti in his blood, and stabbing his mother.

The reports didn't offer a motive for the murder, but said that the graffiti expressed anti-opposition sentiments.

Other reports stated the nationality of the alleged killer as Ukrainian and Serbian.

There has been no confirmation of this incident or that the perpetrator was actually Russian from Russian diplomatic channels.

A Kremlin source told Itar-Tass that the reported killing was most likely not politically motivated.

A similar attack on Russia's Tripoli embassy took place in February 2012 when protesters stormed the compound, condemning Russian and Chinese decisions to block the UN resolution against Syria. No one was injured in that attack.

Nearly two years after Gaddafi was deposed and killed, Tripoli and other Libyan cities have been plagued by violence, lawlessness and factional infighting.

The presence of militiamen remains more visible than actual state security forces in the capital, while vast portions of the oil-producing desert country remain completely out of the central government's control.

Libya's prime minister has appealed for international help as the country struggles through political turmoil amid stunted oil exportation which is costing the country $130 million a day.

As Libya continues to be mired in post-Western intervention disarray, Gaddafi's overthrow has not shown to have yielded a conciliatory political climate as many had hoped.

"Ever since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's government we've seen in Libya the mob rule of countless militias or death squads," activist and journalist Sukant Chandan told RT.

"The truth of the matter is that the Western intervention in Libya destroyed any process of an organic transfer of power from the Gaddafi regime to the opposition," argues political activist John Reese.

"If you come to power under the aegis of a NATO air bombardment, you aren't necessary going to have the popular legitimacy that is necessary to be able to found a stable – never mind the just – administration," he told RT.

One of the most vicious attacks on foreign embassies in Libya took place in September 2012, when the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed as armed militants assaulted Washington's consulate in Benghazi.



http://rt.com/news/libya-russian-embassy-attack-651/
 

Neil

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Libyan Media Links Embassy Attack to Alleged Crime by Russian


DUBAI, October 3 (RIA Novosti) – A group of armed gunmen opened fire on the Russian embassy in Tripoli on Wednesday night, in an attack that Libyan media speculated may have been motivated by a Russian woman killing a Libyan Air Force serviceman in the days before.
The Libyan Internal Affairs Ministry said that a group of about ten people driving two cars opened fire on the embassy, tried to break into the compound, and set fire to an embassy car.

Libyan security guards intervened, killing one of the gunmen and wounding four more, the Associated Press reported, after which the attackers fled.

None of the embassy staff and local security forces were injured, the ministry said, although the front face of the building was slightly damaged.

LANA, the country's official news agency, quoted an unnamed Libyan interior ministry official as saying that "most likely, the attackers have expressed their protest against the killing of a Libyan army air service mechanic."

Libyan media earlier reported that police had arrested a Russian woman on Tuesday on suspicion that she had shot the Libyan officer to death in his home in Tripoli and injured his mother.

Libya's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister thanked security forces for their help in protecting the embassy, LANA reported, and an investigation to identify the perpetrators of the attack is ongoing.

The attack is symptomatic of continued volatility in Libya in the two years following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Clans and tribal rivalries, as well as militant Islamist groups, have flourished in the absence of a strong central government.

Syrian protesters stormed the same embassy in Tripoli in February last year in protest after Russia and China vetoed a UN draft resolution, which called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign as a result of increasing violence from the country's ongoing civil war.

The US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed when an armed Islamist mob stormed the American consulate in Benghazi in September 2012.

Updated to include attackers injured and killed, plus additional quotes, background, and detail throughout



Libyan Media Links Embassy Attack to Alleged Crime by Russian | Russia | RIA Novosti
 

I-G

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Seems case of assassination by hidden sleeper cell inside Libya .
 

The Messiah

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Russia should take advantage of this and wipe out as many wahabhis in libya, even deluded yankee right wingers cant oppose that action because thats what they wanted when there embassy was attacked.
 

I-G

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Russia should take advantage of this and wipe out as many wahabhis in libya, even deluded yankee right wingers cant oppose that action because thats what they wanted when there embassy was attacked.
It was a revenge attack to condemn the assassination of an Libyan air force officer by a Russian female , seems a case of assassination.
 

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