The United Nations said Sunday it was pulling its staff out of Tripoli as violence erupted after a nato air strike apparently killed several members of Moammer Qadhafi's family. "Given the unrest, UN staff are going to leave Tripoli," a UN spokeswoman, Eri Kaneko, told AFP, alluding to the deteriorating security situation in the Libyan capital.
Protesters set fire Sunday to British and Italian embassies, which are on the same street in central Tripoli, hours after Qadhafi's second-youngest son and three of his grandchildren were reported killed in a nato air strike.
Qadhafi had allowed the United Nations to maintain a humanitarian presence in the Libyan capital and a limited number of international aid staff were on the ground in Tripoli.
The establishment of the UN humanitarian presence in Tripoli was agreed by emergency relief co-ordinator Valerie Amos in a deal struck with the Libyan government on April 17.
The accord will "enable us to move around and see exactly what is happening for ourselves," Amos said at the time.
The UN also has staff deployed in the rebel bastion of Benghazi in eastern Libya and elsewhere as it seeks to stave off a humanitarian disaster with tens of thousands of Libyan refugees fleeing the conflict to neighbouring countries.
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