SEOUL
Two local police officers were killed and a third injured in an attack on South Korea’s embassy in Libya, the foreign ministry in Seoul said on Sunday.
Yonhap news agency reported that more than 40 rounds were fired at the embassy in Tripoli from a car at 1.20 p.m. local time (1220GMT), citing a ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There were no South Korean casualties, the ministry said.
"For now, the motive is unclear as to whether the car was aiming for the embassy or the Libyan police officers but there was no damage other than on the embassy's outer wall," the official said.
Two hours after the attack, a group claiming to represent the Tripoli branch of the Daesh militant group claimed responsibility via social media, Yonhap reported.
South Korean ambassador Lee Jong-kook is currently in Tunisia. Embassy staff have been rotated between the two countries since July amid deepening political unrest in Libya.
The South Korean government has been in contact with the more than 40 South Korean nationals who remain in Libya to urge them to leave the country, one of six that Seoul has imposed a travel ban on. The others are Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Afghanistan.
