World Jewish News

Britain and the US advise nationals to leave Libya

The security threat in Benghazi was revealed to have increased significantly, according to the UK and the US, as the British Foreign Office upgraded its travel advice Thursday, urging any remaining British nationals in Libya “to leave immediately”.
The UK had formerly advised against travel to Benghazi and all other areas of Libya in the aftermath of last September’s attack on the US embassy resulting in the deaths of four consulate staff including the US ambassador.
However, citing “specific and imminent threat to Westerners in Benghazi”, this alert has now been increased, as the Britain seeks to encourage its nationals to evacuate the country.
The apparent new intelligence followed outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s testimony to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, addressing her department’s mishandling of September’s attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, which saw it misrepresent the facts to media in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Addressing the State Department’s ongoing initiatives, she said it had been “addressing the broader strategic challenge in North Africa and the wider region, because after all, Benghazi did not happen in a vacuum”.
“We have been facing a rapidly changing threat environment, and we have had to keep working at ways to increase pressure on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the other terrorist groups in the region,” she added, asserting that the very reason the late ambassador had been despatched to Benghazi was to represent the US in Libya at a critical time in its revolution and subsequent democratic transition.
“A weak Libyan Government, marauding militias, terrorist groups; a bomb exploded in the parking lot of his hotel, but he did not waver. Because he understood it was critical for America to be represented there at that time,” she concluded.

by: Shari Ryness

EJP