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Car Explodes Outside French Embassy in Libya Car Explodes Outside French Embassy in Libya
(about 5 hours later)
CAIRO — The explosion of a car parked outside the French Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, wounded two French guards on Tuesday in what appeared to be the first major terrorist attack on a diplomatic compound in the capital since the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. CAIRO — A car bomb destroyed about half of the empty French Embassy in Libya early Tuesday morning, in the most significant attack against a Western interest there since the killing last September of the American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.
If deliberate, the blast would be the most significant such attack on a diplomatic facility in Libya since a siege of an American outpost in Benghazi last September, in which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. A string of more minor attempted attacks on Western or United Nations diplomats began before that attack and has continued since then, although mostly outside the capital. Two French guards were injured in the attack, and one was in critical condition, said a French diplomat present at the scene.
No one claimed responsibility Tuesday, following the pattern of earlier attacks. But Libyans immediately suspected militant Islamists angry over the French intervention in Mali, where French troops are supporting government efforts to oppose Islamic militants in the north of the country. The assault came a day after the French Parliament voted to extend the French military deployment there. The explosion was a new blow to the transitional Libyan government’s hopes of establishing a better sense of public security after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi nearly two years ago. The blast was the largest in Tripoli since the end of the Western bombing campaign that helped force Colonel Qaddafi from power. It was the largest in a long string of smaller attacks on diplomatic missions, and it marks one of the first to occur in the capital.
In the months since French soldiers landed in Mali in January to roll back an attempted takeover by hard-line Islamists, militants in Libya and around the region have denounced the invasion as a new imperialist adventure by the Mali’s former colonial ruler. As in previous attacks, no one claimed responsibility. But Libyans and international analysts have blamed Islamist militants for past attacks, and did so again in Tuesday’s bombing.
And in Libya that anger has blended with mistrust of the motives behind France’s leading role in the Western airstrikes to help topple Colonel Qaddafi. While most Libyans are overwhelmingly grateful for the French airstrikes that stopped Colonel Qaddafi’s troops from crushing the insurrection against him at its start in Benghazi, Islamist militants and others believe the Western powers also sought oil and influence for themselves. Many Islamist militants in Libya have said that they are fighting a foreign attempt to remake their country as a Western-style liberal democracy instead of an Islamic state. They resent the Western powers for their military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of the history of European colonialism in North Africa.
On Tuesday, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, condemned the attack and pledged a swift investigation. The French and Libyan authorities would “make every effort to ensure that the circumstances of this odious act are exposed and it perpetrators quickly identified,” Mr. Fabius said in a statement from Paris. In particular, extremists have focused their anger, in posts on Facebook and other forums, against France for its intervention in neighboring Mali, a former French colony where French troops landed in January to help the central government roll back a hard-line Islamist takeover. The blast outside the embassy came just a day after the French parliament voted to extend the deployment of those troops.
An official in his ministry said Mr. Fabius would travel to Libya on Tuesday. Even during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, which was greatly aided by French military assistance, many Libyans suspected France and the other Western powers of intervening in order to seek oil or influence. And some Islamist militants further resent the West for its help because they believe the Western powers sought to “seize the revolution” in order to “recreate Libya in a Western image of secular democracy,” said Professor George Joffe, a Libya scholar at Cambridge University.
Separately, President Franςois Hollande said the bombing was “aimed, by way of France, at all the countries of the international community engaged in the struggle against terrorism.” The explosion outside Tuesday went off just after 7 a.m., before most employees had arrived at the building. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Libyan official involved in investigating the crime scene said the blast had taken place when the Libyan guards who stand outside were changing their shift.
“France expects the Libyan authorities to shed the fullest light on this unacceptable act, so that the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice,” Mr. Hollande said in a statement. The force of the blast broke the windows and damaged the facades of more than two dozen buildings over an area as wide as 500 yards. Plumes of smoke billowed from the burning wreckage of a car, described by the official as a Renault, that was parked by the embassy walls. A burst water main flooded the street.
Such an inquiry, however, may be difficult. The new Libyan government commands few disciplined police or military officers, and it often appears outmatched by the freewheeling militia formed during and after the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. Even seven months after the death of the American ambassador, little progress has been made to identify or punish his killers. A resident living nearby, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, compared the blast to the worst days of violence in Iraq. “I was knocked out of bed. I lived in Baghdad and I woke up to explosions as big as this one,” she said.
The explosion Tuesday morning took place at around 7 a.m. in Tripoli and tore through a wall of the French Embassy compound. Smoke billowed from the burning remains of a car believe to have been used as a bomb. Residents said the blast was one of the largest explosions in Tripoli since Colonel Qaddafi’s fall. In a statement, the Libyan government described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” and vowed “to cooperate with all parties to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
A resident living nearby, who spoke in return for anonymity for fear of reprisals, compared the blast to the worst days of violence in Iraq. “I was knocked out of bed. I lived in Baghdad and I woke up to explosions as big as this one,” she said. “The people and government categorically reject such acts,” the statement said. “They do not reflect the respect and appreciation that the Libyan people hold for the French Republic and the French people,” the statement added, specifically recalling French support for the revolution.
Aside from the two guards, the embassy was largely empty at the time of the blast, limiting the casualties. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a French diplomat on the scene said the blast had destroyed half the building. Damage from the force of the blast extended about five hundred yards, breaking windows in neighboring buildings and houses. A broken water main flooded the street. In Paris, President Franςois Hollande said the bombing was “aimed, by way of France, at all the countries of the international community engaged in the struggle against terrorism.”
The diplomat said one of the two injured guards had left the hospital while the other was in a more serious condition. “France expects the Libyan authorities to shed the fullest light on this unacceptable act, so that the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice,” Mr. Hollande added in a statement.
Attacks or bombings targeting Western diplomats have been more common around the eastern city of Benghazi, in a region known as a center of Islamist militancy. But since the killing of the American ambassador most Western diplomats have pulled out of Benghazi and retreated to better-secured facilities in Tripoli, in the West. Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, arrived in Tripoli on Tuesday to meet with Libyan officials. The French and Libyan authorities would “make every effort to ensure that the circumstances of this odious act are exposed and its perpetrators quickly identified,” Mr. Fabius said in an earlier statement from Paris.
In January, Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, closed its consulate in Benghazi and withdrew its staff because of security concerns after an attempted ambush of the Italian consul. Last month, Libyan security officials said they had arrested two men in the kidnapping near Benghazi of five British humanitarian activists, at least two of them women who had been sexually assaulted. Such an inquiry, however, may be difficult. The new Libyan government commands few disciplined police or military officers. Its forces often seemed outmatched by the freewheeling militias formed during and after the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, and in fact it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between the autonomous militias and the loosely organized government fighters.
The attack on the French Embassy, however, may raise new questions about the possibility that militants may now try to strike other targets in the capital as well. The country as a whole is viewed by outsiders as potentially perilous with many weapons in the hands of citizens and militias beyond government control. Most foreigners in Tripoli take elaborate security precautions. Attacks or bombings targeting Western diplomats have been more common around the eastern city of Benghazi, in a region known as a center of Islamist militancy. There was an attempted attack on the British envoy before the killing of Ambassador Stevens, and in January there was an attempted ambush there of the Italian consul.
Last month, Libyan security officials said they had arrested two men in the kidnapping near Benghazi of five British humanitarian activists, at least two of them women who had been sexually assaulted.
Most Western diplomats have pulled out of Benghazi and retreated to better-secured facilities in Tripoli, in the West. But the attack on the French Embassy may raise new questions about the possibility that militants may now try to strike other targets in the capital as well. It was the second attack in the capital following the hurling of a bomb at an empty United Nations compound in January.
“Until very recently everybody was pointing to the chaos and anarchy in Benghazi as the reason that an incident such as the attack on the U.S. consulate there could take place,” said Claudia Gazzani, a Libya researcher for the International Crisis Group. “Now people are coming to grips with the fact that even in the capital, where you have the most presence of the state, that same kind of anarchy rules.”

Reporting was contributed by Suliman Ali Zway from Benghazi, Libya, Osama Al-Fitori from Tripoli, Libya, Alan Cowell from London and Steven Erlanger from Paris.

Reporting was contributed by Suliman Ali Zway from Benghazi, Libya, Osama Al-Fitori from Tripoli, Libya, Alan Cowell from London and Steven Erlanger from Paris.