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The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said. "Due to the ongoing 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," spokeswoman Marie Harf said. The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012...

Keel Laid For Amphibious Warship Tripoli By: Sam LaGrone Published: June 20, 2014 3:21 PM Updated: June 20, 2014 3:21 PM Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus delivers remarks during the keel-laying ceremony for the amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA-7). US Navy Photo Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus delivers remarks during the keel-laying ceremony for the amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA-7). US Navy Photo The keel for the next-generation amphibious warship Tripoli (LHA-7) was laid in a ceremony at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. on Friday. The ceremony marked the official start of construction for the second...

The US is sending 1,000 Marines in an amphibious assault ship to Libya's coast as a “precautionary” move should the US embassy require evacuation, a US official said. Security concerns also led the US to suggest Americans in Libya "depart immediately." Adding to tensions, gunmen attacked the Tripoli home of Libya’s new prime minister, Ahmed Maiteeq, on Tuesday. Businessman Maiteeq, 42, and his family escaped harm, according to AFP. An aide to Maiteeq said "there was an attack with rockets and small arms on the prime minister's house" in Tripoli at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT). Maiteeq’s guards opened fire on...

Washington (AFP) - The US State Department recommended Americans in Libya "depart immediately," in its latest travel warning on Tuesday.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The U.S. military has doubled the number of aircraft standing by in Italy if needed to evacuate Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, CNN has learned. A decision to evacuate as violence in the Libyan capital grows is "minute by minute, hour by hour," a defense official told CNN on Monday. Fierce fighting swept across the city Sunday after armed men stormed the country's interim Parliament. Sporadic bursts of gunfire and blasts could still be heard on the outskirts of the capital Monday evening. The violence appeared to be some of the worst since...

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a brief self-congratulatory trip to Tripoli, Libya, in October 2011 -- with U.S. military assets lurking offshore in case they needed to rescue her -- she joked, in the presence of then-Ambassador Gene Cretz and Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, that they had not-so-long-ago been worried that the ambassador might end up the target of a murderous Libyan assault. "As Gene and Assistant Secretary Feltman and I were walking through here, they were talking about how the last time Jeff was here was when we were very worried that Gadhafi and [Libyan...

WASHINGTON -- National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and said that when she had appeared on several news outlets back in September 2012 to state that the attack on an American diplomatic installation in Benghazi was a "spontaneous reaction" to an American-made film that appeared on YouTube she had used "the best information we [the White House] had at the time." Senator John McCain responded to her statement Sunday that it left him "almost speechless." The Arizona Republican said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "I'm almost speechless, because it's patently obvious, first of...

A senior al-Qaeda figure with close ties to the terrorist group’s current leader has left Iran, where he had lived for years after fleeing American forces in Afghanistan in 2001, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials. Thirwat Shihata is the latest suspected terrorist to leave Iran, raising questions about the country’s motives for allowing or forcing the departure of a string of al-Qaeda members that it had sheltered over the past decade. A top-secret 2008 U.S. document, which was leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, lists 13 senior al-Qaeda figures or associates in Iran. Five...

Major Quake Likely in Middle East, Survey Finds Kate Ravilious for National Geographic News July 26, 2007 In A.D. 551, a massive earthquake devastated the coast of Phoenicia, now Lebanon. The disaster is well-documented, but scientists had struggled over the years to locate the earthquake fault. Now a new underwater survey has uncovered the fault and shown that it moves approximately every 1,500 years—which means a disaster is due any day now. "It is just a matter of time before a destructive tsunami hits this region again," said Iain Stewart, an earthquake expert at the University of Plymouth in the...

Yet a trip this week by tea party Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann, Steve King and Louie Gohmert has been quite hush-hush, even though they went to iffy places like Beirut, Cairo and even to Tripoli — where the U.S. embassy last week issued a “warning” notice “strongly advis(ing) against all but essential travel to Tripoli and against all travel . . outside Tripoli because of ongoing instability and violence.” And, as best we can figure, they even flew commercial, not only to the region but even within the region. They even went to embassy briefings and such. So this is...

Heavy shooting from guns and anti-aircraft weapons could be heard early on Tuesday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters witnesses said.

WASHINGTON -- Navy SEALs carried out a predawn raid Saturday against a suspected Shabab leader in Somalia who is believed to have planned the group's deadly attack last month on a shopping mall in Kenya, two U.S. officials said. Also Saturday, a Libyan Al Qaeda leader wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa was reportedly captured in Tripoli, Libya. A U.S. official said the Somalia raid involved commandos storming a beachfront house in a town not far from Mogadishu. It remained unclear whether the target of the raid was killed or even was...

A senior al-Qaeda leader has been captured near the Libyan city of Tripoli in an operation apparently unrelated to the raid in Somalia, NBC News reports. Anas al Libi, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqai'I, has been wanted by the US for more than a decade and has a $5 million reward on his head.

Al Arabiya Dozens of angry protesters tried to storm Russia's embassy in Tripoli on Wednesday after reports that a Russian woman had killed a Libyan army officer, witnesses said. One of the attackers was killed by the gunfire, and four more were wounded, Libyan officials told the Associated Press. The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard around the embassy, Al Arabiya’s correspondent added. Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack saying none of its staff was injured. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Ekho Moskvy radio the attackers fired at the embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and...

Gunmen attacked the Russian embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday hours after news broke that a Russian woman had been arrested and accused of killing a senior military official. The Russian foreign ministry said diplomats were safe and had been evacuated after unknown attackers attempted to break into the embassy grounds. Four Libyans were wounded in the attack, local media reported. Gun and rocket fire echoed through the streets around the compound, as police and army units were deployed around the building in pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. The attack came hours after Libyan authorities arrested a...

First it was the Americans. Now it is the Russians' turn. Al Arabiya reports (and Itar-Tass confirms) that "Gunmen attacked the Russian embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, Al Arabiya correspondent reported. The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard around the embassy, the correspondent added. No further details were immediately available." According to unverified reports on Twitter, the embassy had been evacuated before the attack (the Russian NSA appears to be more efficient than its US equivalent). The Russian embassy in Tripoli: RT adds: The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, has come under fire and...

Thirty-one migrants, including nine women, drowned off the coast of Libya during an attempted crossing to Italy on a dinghy according to survivors who managed to complete the journey. A dinghy carrying 53 migrants capsized on Friday evening, and witnesses said 31 of those who had been thrown off it drowned in the accident. The twenty-two survivors, who come from Nigeria, Gambia, Benin and Senegal, said the dinghy had capsized after three days at sea. They were rescued by a passing merchant ship and taken to Lampedusa island, the reports said.

In Tripoli, protesters appeared to be inspired by events in neighboring Egypt, where millions took to the streets Friday to answer a call from the army chief, who said he wanted a mandate to stop "potential terrorism" by supporters of the country's ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood. "We don't want the Brotherhood, we want the army and the police," Libyan protesters chanted, repeating a slogan also used in Egypt.

One weekday morning in April 2004, a Libyan girl named Soraya was accorded one of her nation’s highest honors: Col. Moammar Khadafy was visiting her school, and Soraya alone had been chosen to present him with a bouquet. “You can’t imagine the excitement,” she recalled. “To see Khadafy in person . . . His face had been known to me since I was born.” Soraya was ushered into a makeshift dressing room, where she changed into traditional garb for the Libyan woman: red pants and tunic, small hat. “My heart was beating a hundred miles a minute,” Soraya said. She...

Libya's government earlier this month released a key terror suspect who U.S. officials say was involved in planning the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on U.S. diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi. Faraj al Chalabi, (also spelled Shibli) an al Qaeda terrorist also linked to the 1994 terrorist murder of two German tourists, was detained by the Tripoli government in March. However, al Chalabi was released June 12 based on claims that there was a lack of evidence to hold him custody. A U.S. official said the U.S. government has evidence al Chalabi was linked to the Benghazi attack but did...