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Car Bomb Hits French Embassy in Tripoli | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP)


Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP)

Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy, wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP)

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—French President François Hollande has demanded today that Libya quickly clarify how the French embassy in Tripoli was targeted in an attack that left two French security guards injured.

“France expects the Libyan authorities to ensure that all possible light is shed on this unacceptable act so that the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice,” Hollande said in a statement.

The attack on the French embassy is the first assault on a diplomatic mission in Tripoli since the end of the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, leaving Libya awash with weapons and roaming armed groups.

There have been several similar attacks, notably in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed last September.

US officials say militants with ties to Al-Qaeda were mostly likely involved in that attack, but no party has yet claimed responsibility.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the North African arm of the Salafist militant group, has warned of retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali, but there was no indication as to who was behind Tuesday’s explosion at the embassy in Libya.

Meanwhile, France’s foreign ministe,r Laurent Fabius, will fly to Libya today in an effort to assess the situation and oversee the repatriation of the two injured embassy guards.

Security remains precarious in post-war Libya, where militias often do as they please.

The bombing of the US mission in Benghazi followed attacks on British, Red Cross and United Nations interests in the city.

Western countries have warned of growing militancy in North Africa following the deaths of at least 38 hostages in an attack on Algeria’s In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border in January, and the start of French military operations in Mali.