AFP – Dozens of angry protesters tried to storm Russia’s embassy in Tripoli after reports that a Russian woman had killed a Libyan army officer, witnesses said.
The demonstrators destroyed a car parked in front of the embassy compound and damaged the mission’s entrance gate, the witnesses told AFP.
Security services arrived on the scene to protect the diplomats inside the compound.
They were eventually able to disperse the protesters, evacuate Russian diplomatic staff and were guarding the embassy, witnesses said, adding that no one appeared to have been injured in the unrest.
Later Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz went to the Russian embassy to survey the damage caused, the Libyan Lana news agency reported.
The agency said that there was “minor damage” to the building.
Citing an interior ministry source, it added that an inquiry was swiftly launched and security services were seeking the assailants.
The incident comes two days after conflicting reports emerged about the circumstances surrounding the murder of an army officer in the Souk Juma district of Tripoli.
Some sources said a Russian woman killed the officer for his role in the 2011 revolt against the regime of late dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Others said the woman was the wife of the slain man and that the motive for the killing was a marital dispute.
