UN to withdraw from Tripoli as UK and Italian embassies targeted

The UK foreign office has expelled the Libyan ambassador to London. This comes on the day that Colonel Gaddafi’s son was reported to have been killed in a NATO airstrike.

THE UNITED NATIONS is to withdraw all of its international staff from the Libyan capital of Tripoli following an attack on its offices which the country’s government says was the actions of an angry mob.

BBC News reports that UN buildings and some foreign missions were targetted by angry crowds today following reports that the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi had been killed in a NATO airstrike.

The UK and Italian embassies have also been vandalised with the UK deciding to expel the Libyan ambassador to London, deeming him “persona non grata” in a statement released by the Foreign Office this afternoon.

He has been given 24 hours to leave the country.

The UN told the BBC that its offices had been ransacked overnight and that the Libyan government had apologised, blaming the attacks on an angry mob.

Most western governments evacuated staff from Tripoli when an international coalition of air strikes on Libya began following the imposition of a no fly zone several weeks ago.