Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens – Departure of U.S. government personnel

TUNIS, Tunisia (US Gov) Sept. 15, 2012 – The U.S. Embassy alerts all U.S. citizens that the Department of State has ordered the departure of all non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Tunisia following the attack on the U.S. Embassy. The airport in Tunis is open and U.S. citizens are encouraged to depart by commercial air.

U.S. citizens remaining in Tunisia should use caution and avoid demonstrations, make their own contingency emergency plans, enroll their presence in Tunisia through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), and provide their current contact information and next-of-kin or emergency contact information.

U.S. citizens should remain cautious and avoid areas where large gatherings may occur. Even demonstrations or events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.  U.S. citizens in Tunisia are urged to monitor local news reports and to plan their activities accordingly. U.S. citizens should review the current Country Specific Information for Tunisia.

U.S. orders embassy staff to leave Tunis, Khartoum

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) – The U.S. embassies in Tunis and Khartoum were attacked on Friday by protesters infuriated by a widely disseminated anti-Islamic film, made in the United States, that insults the Prophet Mohammad and has provoked a violent reaction across the Muslim world.

Four people were killed and 46 injured in the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, according to a hospital official in the city.

In Khartoum, around 5,000 people protesting against the film stormed the German embassy before breaking into the U.S. mission on Friday. They also attacked the British embassy and at least two people were killed in clashes with police, according to state media.

A U.S. official told Reuters on Friday that Washington would send Marines to Sudan to improve security at the embassy, which is located outside Khartoum for security reasons.

But Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told the state news agency SUNA, “Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps.”

Sudan Refuses to Allow US Marines to Protect Embassy

Wounded Libyan guard tells there was no protest before Islamists attack

(AP) – Libyan security guard who said he was at the U.S. consulate here when it was attacked Tuesday night has provided new evidence that the assault on the compound that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was a planned attack by armed Islamists and not the outgrowth of a protest over an online video that mocks Islam and its founder, the Prophet Muhammad.

The guard, interviewed in the hospital where he is being treated for five shrapnel wounds in one leg and two bullet wounds in the other, said that the consulate area was quiet– “there wasn’t a single ant outside,” he said – until about 9:35 p.m., when as many as 125 armed men descended on the compound from all directions.

The men lobbed grenades into the compound, wounding the guard and knocking him to the ground, then stormed through the facility’s main gate, shouting “God is great” and moving to one of the many villas that make up the consulate compound.

The Libyan security guard at the gate was unarmed and carried only a phone. One of the Islamists wanted to execute him, but he narrowly escaped through intervention of another.

The wounded guard’s tale suggested that whoever ordered the assault had been able to call upon a large number of people to carry out what appeared to be an organized attack.

The guard, who said he’d been hired seven months ago by a British company to protect the compound, said the first explosion knocked him to the ground, and he was unable to fire his weapon. Four other contracted guards and three members of Libya’s 17th of February Brigade, a group formed during the first days of the anti-Gadhafi uprising and now considered part of Libya’s military, were protecting the outside perimeter of the compound.

After storming through the gate, the guard said, the men rushed into one of the compound’s buildings, meeting no resistance. The guard did not say whether that was the building where the ambassador was.

More details emerge on U.S. ambassador’s last moments

US consulate less security protection than embassy, not able to withstand attack

(Politico) – The Benghazi consulate where the American ambassador to Libya was killed on Tuesday is an “interim facility” not protected by the contingent of Marines that safeguards embassies. The consulate had “lock-and-key” security, not the same level of defenses as a formal embassy, an intelligence source said. That means it had no bulletproof glass, reinforced doors or other features common to embassies. The intelligence source contrasted it with the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt – “a permanent facility, which is a lot easier to defend.”

The consulate came under fire from heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at about 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday. By the time the attack ended several hours later, four Americans were dead and three others had been injured.

Did the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Not Have Enough Security?