US warship carrying marines deployed near Libya

The United States is deploying an amphibious assault ship with about 1,000 marines off the coast of Libya in case the US embassy must be evacuated, a US defense official said Tuesday.
The move came as the State Department recommended Americans in Libya “depart immediately,” in its latest travel warning on Tuesday.
The USS Bataan was to be in the area “in a matter of days,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move was described as “precautionary” in case conditions in Libya, where militia battles have plunged the country into anarchy, worsen and require the embassy’s evacuation.
“Due to security concerns, the Department of State has limited staffing at Embassy Tripoli and is only able to offer very limited emergency services to US citizens in Libya,” the travel warning said.
“Because of the presumption that foreigners, especially US citizens, in Libya may be associated with the US government or US NGOs, travelers should be aware that they may be targeted for kidnapping, violent attacks, or death,” it added.
“US citizens currently in Libya should exercise extreme caution and depart immediately,” it said.
The leader of Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi Tuesday warned the U.S. against interference or it would face worse than the conflicts in Somalia, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
Ansar al-Sharia, listed as a foreign terrorist organisation by Washington, was accused of orchestrating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died.
Mohamed Zahawi, head of the Benghazi brigade of Ansar al-Sharia, accused the U.S. government of backing renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, who has begun a self-declared campaign to purge Libya of Islamist militants.
"We remind America, if they intervene, of their defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, because they would face in Libya something much worse," he said in a statement. "It was America who urged Haftar to turn the country towards war and bloodshed."
A former general under Gaddafi, Haftar earlier this month launched attacks with his irregular forces on Islamist militant bases in Benghazi because he said the government had failed.
Ansar al-Sharia also runs a network of social services in the city and has operated its own checkpoints.
Many Libyans are fed up with violence and Islamist militants accused of assassinations and bombings especially in the eastern city, and Haftar gained some support from regular army units.
But forces claiming loyalty to him also stormed the Tripoli parliament a week ago, and he demanded the legislature hand over powers in a further challenge to the vast North African country's already stumbling transition to democracy.
Asked about Zahawi's assertion that Washington was backing Haftar, a U.S. official in Washington replied: "That's ridiculous, but coming from a terrorist, not unexpected."
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States opposed political violence by all sides in Libya. "Our position is clear - political violence will not solve Libya's political problems. We call upon all parties in Libya to work constructively and productively toward finding solutions to the current crisis."
Libya's young democracy is in turmoil three years after the NATO-backed war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, with rival Islamist, anti-Islamist, regional and political factions locked in a complex struggle for influence in the OPEC member state.
Four decades of Gaddafi's one-man rule left few institutions or national army to resist competing militias and brigades of former rebels who have become de facto power-brokers