By IRNA,
Berlin : Germany has dispatched three warships to Libya to evacuate German nationals trying to flee the strife-torn north African country, the website of the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported Thursday.
The ships, carrying 600 soldiers on board, have arrived in the maritime area
between Malta and Libya, a defense ministry spokesperson told Der Spiegel.
There are approximately 160 German citizens stranded in Libya, according to
German foreign ministry estimates.
Hundreds of Germans have been evacuated by air, land and sea over the past
days amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Libya.
In other related news, the European Union is contemplating launching a military mission in Libya, Der Spiegel quoted an unnamed European Union diplomat as saying Thursday.
‘We are making our contingency plans, and our contingency plans are for different scenarios, and this is one of the possibilities we are working on,’ added the diplomat.
The source said the main focus was on getting Libyans and foreigners safely out of the country as the EU and the UN were closely working on this issue.
‘Any kind of military operation requires a legal basis, right now we are only planning,’ according to the EU diplomat.
The source – indicating he was quoting estimates by the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations – said that between 5,000 and 8,000 people were fleeing Libya and heading for Tunisia, while ‘a smaller number’ were seeking refuge in Egypt.
A major popular uprising against Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi in which
hundreds are believed to have been killed by government forces has
led western countries to start evacuating their citizens.