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LIBYA

Spain pulls diplomatic staff out of Libya

Spain has temporarily evacuated all of its diplomatic staff from its embassy in Libya as the country's security crisis continues to worsen, the foreign affairs minister announced on Thursday.

Spain pulls diplomatic staff out of Libya
Members of the Libyan army guarding the western gate of Tripoli in May. Photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFP

Some 28 staff people, including Spain's embassy staff in Libya, were expected to arrive in Madrid's Torrejón de Ardoz military airbase, the ministry said in statement quoted by Spain's El Periódico newspaper.

This is the second such evacuation from Libya this week after 37 Spaniards, their Libyan family members and citizens from other European Union countries were airlifted on Tuesday.

The evacuations come amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation in the North African country in recent weeks.

SEE ALSO: Italy denies sending fighter jets to Libya

Tripoli’s airport has been closed for over two weeks as violence rages in the Libyan capital. 

The clashes, the most violent since a 2011 armed revolt that overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, started with a July 13th assault on the airport by armed groups, mainly Islamists.

The deadly fighting has spread to other cities and on Monday a huge fire erupted at an oil depot outside the Libyan capital, threatening its vital oil industry already hit by the exodus of foreign workers.

"The Spanish Government is confident that the unstable situation in Libya will soon pass and repeats its call for a ceasefire as quickly as possible," foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo said in a statement on Thursday.

The Spanish Government would continue to support the country's new parliament and would continue to support its international allies and the United Nations to consolidate democracy and ensure the stability of the country, the minister added.      

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BOMB

Disposal of four WWII bombs in Göttingen soothes memories of 2010 tragedy

Some 8,000 residents of the city of Göttingen have been able to return home after a bomb disposal unit defused four WWII bombs discovered during building work.

Disposal of four WWII bombs in Göttingen soothes memories of 2010 tragedy
The evacuation zone in Göttingen. Photo: DPA

The last bomb was detonated by the explosive ordnance disposal service at around 1 am on Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the city.

Göttingen has in the past had tragic experience with a bomb defusal operation. 

In 2010, three employees of the local Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service died when a bomb they were trying to defuse exploded. 

The memory of that disaster was on everyone’s minds this weekend, city spokesman Dominik Kimyon said.

“That incident was of course hovering over everything and shaped the mood. Now everyone is very relieved,” he said.

There are huge numbers of unexploded WWII bombs still lying under the ground in German cities, with evacuations regularly occurring after the ordnance is found during building work.

The four ten-ton WWII bombs were found during building work in Göttingen last week.

An evacuation zone with a radius of 1,000 meters was subsequently set up around the site where the bombs were found. 

More than 8,000 people had to leave their homes on Saturday, January 30th.

A total of around 260 people were provided with accommodation in several evacuation centres.

The rest of the evacuees stayed with relatives and friends. Corona regulations were temporarily suspended.

According to the city, there were no casualties during the planned detonations. However, window panes in two nearby buildings were shattered by the blast wave from the explosion

Residents were not allowed to return immediately, as exploration teams first checked the surrounding area for more explosive devices.

It was only after about two hours that most residents were given the all-clear and the exclusion zone was reopened.

SEE ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

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