Russia evacuated its diplomatic community from Libya on Thursday following an attack on its embassy in Tripoli, and said it was relocating its Libyan mission to Tunisia until conditions were safe
Russia evacuated its diplomatic community from Libya on Thursday following an attack on its embassy in Tripoli, and said it was relocating its Libyan mission to Tunisia until conditions were safe.
“On Oct. 3, all the employees of the Russian Embassy and their family members safely crossed the border with Tunisia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in an official statement. “Until the security issues related to the work of our mission in Tripoli are resolved, a group of senior diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Libya will temporarily remain in Tunisia.”
Lukashevich said the others will be flown to Moscow on Friday. He urged Russian citizens to avoid travel to Libya, a volatile country that, for decades, has been a Soviet and Russian ally in the Middle East.
No Russian personnel were hurt when a group of gunmen attacked the embassy Wednesday night with hand grenades and machine guns. An embassy car was burned and some property damaged before embassy guards and Libyan security forces repelled the attack. One of the assailants was killed and four were injured, the Russia-24 television news network reported.
According to Lukashevich, the attack was provoked by the killing of a Libyan air force officer by a Russian citizen, identified as Yekaterina Ustyuzhaninova, who also injured the officer's mother with a knife. Ustyuzhaninova remains in custody in Libya, he added.
“The incident provoked relatives and friends of the slain Libyan to decide to avenge his death by attacking the Russian diplomatic mission,” Lukashevich said. “The armed attackers succeeded in breaking through into the embassy grounds, but the personnel and their family members hid in the protected premises.”
In a telephone conversation with his Libyan counterpart, Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that Libya take action as soon as possible to ensure the safe operation of the embassy, Lukashevich said.
