British Prime Minister David Cameron makes unannounced visit to Libya

February 1, 2013



British David Cameron made an unannounced visit to the Libyan capital city of Tripoli yesterday after visiting Algeria earlier in the day.

David Cameron pledged that Britain would help in training Libya's security forces. He said in a joint press conference held with  that "the British people want to stand with you and help you deliver the greater security that Libya needs". Cameron also reiterated his support for the, denying suggestions put to him that foreign intervention in Islamic countries would lead to a backlash against Western nations by.

The security was tight during his walkabout in the, where police attempted to hold back the locals as a police helicopter flew overhead. His visit to Tripoli comes in the aftermath of recent threats to the British embassy and just a week after British citizens were urged to leave the second largest city of due to a "specific and imminent" threat to Westerners.

Police officers investigating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing from the have been granted access to new information to help them with their inquiries. In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of and sentenced to  but was released in 2009 on compassionate health grounds and died last year.