Libya threat: US sends Marines to Italy
Iran Press TV
Thu May 15, 2014 3:13PM GMT
US officials announced the deployment of approximately 200 Marines from Spain to southern Italy to join the "crisis response" force ready to defend the embassy in Tripoli, Libya.
The forces are on the watch to move across the sea into Libya in case of possible threats to the embassy, officials said Wednesday.
'We're seeing a deterioration of the security situation there,' an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Right now, there is no plan to evacuate the embassy, the State Department said.
The team is armed with four tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft as well as two KC-130 refueling tankers and arrived at the US naval air station in Sigonella, Italy on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.
Warren did not specify Libya to be the reason for the deployment which he characterized as a 'prudent measure' in light of 'the general unrest in Northern Africa."
The US troops were previously stationed in Moron, Spain, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response unit.
This is the same force that helped evacuate staff from the US Embassy in South Sudan last year.
Libya has been the scene of numerous clashes between government forces and militia groups, which played a key role in the 2011 popular uprising that toppled former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Nearly three years after the end of Gaddafi's four-decade rule, the country is still grappling with rising insecurity and violence.
The former rebels refuse to lay down their arms despite the authorities' struggle to assert their control over the country.
Thousands of angry Libyan demonstrators have recently taken to the streets in different cities to protest against lack of security across the North African country.
AN/HRJ
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
