Islamist militants occupy US embassy in Libya

A group of Islamist militants stormed the US embassy in Tripoli as intense fighting was ongoing in the capital's suburb Sunday, a security source said.

The Libya Dawn militants broke into the embassy compound and occupied the main building, Xinhua quoted the source as saying. Some witnesses said they saw militants swimming in the pool in the compound. A commander from the armed group confirmed that their fighters had "secured" the embassy.

The US embassy had already evacuated all its personnel in late July, as fierce fighting between Islamist armed groups and pro-secular militia set the capital city ablaze.

US Ambassador to Libya Deborah K. Jones Sunday tweeted that she saw a video of the compound and it appeared to be shot in "a residential annex of the US mission but cannot say definitively since (I am) not there". Jones is in Malta.

On Sunday, fierce clashes continued in western Tripoli as Islamist fighters launched assaults on local militiamen. Although the combat zone has slowly shifted to suburban areas, the security situation in the capital city has not improved.