The US evacuates

The Americans are evacuating from Benghazi and upping their security. This is the latest, including an official security brief from the US government.

The last time anything LIKE this happened was 1979 in Tehran. What we are seeing now are partially the consequence of those events.

U.S. Evacuates Diplomatic Personnel from Libya’s Benghazi

Turkish Weekly,

13 September, 2012

The United States has evacuated all of its diplomatic personnel from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi following the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three consulate employees, a senior administration official of the U.S. Department of State said.

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U.S. embassies tighten security in wake of Libyan attack

Government Security News,

12 September, 2012

The U.S. State Department has tightened security measures at embassies in the middle east, Africa and the Caucuses, according to reports, after a chaotic Sept. 11 gun, mortar and grenade assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. citizens there.

Attacks and violent Anti-American protests continue to occur at U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt, apparently fueled by an amateur Web video critical of Islam. In Yemen home of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), demonstrators burned diplomatic vehicles at the U.S. embassy in Sana’a on Sept. 13.

U.S. officials have said the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi had been planned in advance to fall on the 11th anniversary of Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks on the U.S. A Defense Department official said a Marine Corps fleet antiterrorism security team based out of Europe has been dispatched to secure the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli and protect U.S. citizens.

DOD said it is also providing support to evacuate American personnel and casualties out of Libya, the official added.

The Associated Press reported on Sept. 13 that U.S. embassies in at least seven countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Caucuses are warning of possible anti-American protests following the attack on the Libyan consulate.

Senior administration officials on Sept. 12, gave an initial account of how the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed in the attack on the Benghazi compound.

The officials related some of the harrowing details of the Benghazi assault to reporters in a briefing. They said the department was still gathering information and some of the details involved in the incident, however.

One official said security in Benghazi included a local guard force outside of the compound, similar to the way the agency sets up security across State Department facilities worldwide. The Benghazi facility had a physical perimeter barrier and a what the official called a “robust American security presence inside the compound, including a strong component of regional security officers.” He declined to provide further details on other security precautions.

Another administration official noted that the consulate building in Benghazi was being used on an interim basis and had originally been acquired before Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi was overthrown in the fall of 2011. The facility includes a main building and several ancillary buildings, and an annex.

That official said that around 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time yesterday -- about 10 p.m. in Libya -- the compound in Benghazi began taking fire from unidentified Libyan extremists. By about 4:15, he said, the attackers gained access to the compound and began firing into the main building, setting it on fire. The Libyan guard force and mission security personnel responded, he said, adding that at the time, three people inside the building: Ambassador Stevens, one of our regional security officers, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith. The administration official said they became separated from each other because of heavy, dark smoke while they were trying to evacuate the burning building. According to the official, the Regional Security Officer made it outside, and then he and other security personnel returned into the burning building in an attempt to rescue Stevens and Smith. They found Smith, although he was already dead, and pulled him from the building. They were unable, to locate Stevens before begin driven from the building by the heavy fire and smoke and the continuing small arms fire.

At about 4:45 Washington time, said the official, U.S. security personnel assigned to the mission annex tried to regain the main building, but the group also took heavy fire and had to return to the mission annex. At about 5:20, U.S. and Libyan security personnel tried to get back to the building and were able to enter the main building and secure it. Continued small arms fire, however, forced them to evacuate the rest of the personnel and stashing them in the nearby annex building, according to the official.

The mission annex then came under fire at about 6 o'clock in the evening Washington time, and continued for about two hours, said the official. It was during that time that two additional U.S. personnel were killed and two more were wounded during that ongoing attack, he said.

At about 8:30 p.m. Washington time, about 2 a.m. in Libya, Libyan security forces assisted in regaining control of the situation, he siad. “At some point in all of this – and frankly, we do not know when – we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport.”

Later the same evening, the State Department was able to bring a chartered aircraft from Tripoli into Benghazi to evacuate all of its Benghazi personnel back to Tripoli. The evacuation, which had to occur in a couple of planeloads, said the official, included all of American Benghazi personnel, including the three wounded, and Stevens’ body. The staff has been evacuated to Ramstein Landstuhl in Germany and will stay in Europe on standby as the agency assesses the situation in Libya, said the official.

The official said the embassy staff in Tripoli has been taken down to emergency levels.