An armed mob broke into the Russian Embassy compound in the Libyan capital Tripoli Wednesday after a Russian woman was accused of killing a Libyan air force pilot, and one of the attackers was killed by random gunfire, Libyan officials said. The Russian Foreign Ministry said none of the embassy staff was wounded.
The Libyan official said the attackers scaled the walls of the embassy compound from three different directions, firing in the air, and broke down its metal gate. The shooting wounded five, one of whom later died.
The official said the attackers also brought down the Russian flag hanging in the balcony of one of the buildings. But the attackers didn’t enter the embassy buildings, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the attack, saying on Ekho Moskvy radio that according to preliminary information no one among the embassy personnel was wounded, and security guards fired shots to disperse a group of about 60 people that had approached the embassy, and an attempt to enter the building was repelled.
Later, another Russian spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, told Russian state television that the situation had calmed.
The attack was symptomatic of volatility in Libya two years after the overthrow of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. Clan and tribal rivalries, as well as Islamist groups, have flourished in the absence of strong central government. Security services, themselves riven, have struggled to maintain order.
There have been a number of attacks on Western diplomats by militant groups. Militants linked to al-Qaida affiliates attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.
However, one Libyan security source said the attack did not appear to be directly linked to any militant group.
The attackers were apparently reacting to the killing of a Libyan air force pilot Tuesday. Libyan authorities apprehended a Russian woman, accusing her of killing the pilot, then writing offensive graffiti in his blood. The woman later went on to stab and wound the pilot’s mother, authorities say.
“The group attacked the compound as an act of revenge, because of the killing of the Libyan,” said the security source. The embassy was empty at the time.
Her alleged motives were not clear. In the graffiti scribbled on the walls, she allegedly expressed sentiments against the Libyan uprising that drove Gadhafi from power after an eight-month civil war in 2011.
Libya also has been hit by a months-long wave of targeted killings against activists, judges and security agents.
On Wednesday, gunmen in Benghazi shot dead a naval officer and his 7-year-old son before fleeing the scene. Most killings are presumed to be the work of armed factions, often acting out of revenge.
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