Big News Network.com Wednesday 28th May, 2014
WASHINGTON - The United States has advised its citizens in Libya to leave "immediately" the troubled nation wracked by increasing lawlessness and an unending turmoil.
The advisory comes amid reports that the US was sending 1,000 Marines in an amphibious warship, USS Bataan, into the Mediterranean Sea. The ship could be used, if needed, for any possible evacuation of American personnel from Libya.
The State Department Tuesday asked Americans to leave Libya immediately. However, there was nothing on whether the US will evacuate diplomats from the embassy in Tripoli.
The advisory also warned US citizens against any travel to the North African country that is in the grip of an Al Qaeda inspired insurgency for the last three years since the uprising that overthrew long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The State Department cautioned that the security situation in Libya "remains unpredictable and unstable" with crime levels high in many parts of the country where various groups have called for attacks against US citizens and US interests in Libya.
"US citizens currently in Libya should exercise extreme caution and depart immediately," the department said in a statement.
It said that with the present security concerns and limited staffing, the US can only offer limited emergency services to its citizens in Libya.
"Due to security concerns, the Department of State has limited staffing at Embassy Tripoli and is only able to offer very limited emergency services to US citizens in Libya," the travel warning said.
But the US, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, is sending the warship as a preemptive move to avoid any helplessness amid increasingly violent militia battles that could threaten the American embassy's security.
The USS Bataan is stocked with several helicopters in addition to the Marines.
The US also has available 250 Marines, seven Osprey combat aircraft, and three refueling aircraft in Sigonella, Italy, according to AFP wire news service.
On Tuesday, leader of Libya's Ansar al-Sharia militant group in Benghazi warned the US against backing renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, who has vowed to purge Libya of Islamist militants.
Ansar al-Sharia is listed as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.
It is accused of orchestrating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
"We remind America, if they intervene, of their defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, because they would face in Libya something much worse," Mohamed Zahawi, head of the Benghazi brigade of Ansar al-Sharia, said in a statement.
"It was America who urged Haftar to turn the country towards war and bloodshed."
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