European nations issue Benghazi warnings - San Francisco Chronicle

London --

Britain, Germany and the Netherlands urged their citizens to immediately leave the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday in response to what they called an imminent threat against Westerners.

The warnings came a day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testified to Congress about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

The foreign ministries of the three European countries issued statements describing the threat as specific and imminent but none would elaborate.

The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya's capital, noted the Europeans' warnings but said there was "no specific information pointing to specific, imminent threats against U.S. citizens."

Benghazi, with a population of 1 million, is Libya's second-largest city and where the Libyan uprising against longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy began in February 2011. Khadafy was eventually toppled and killed, and the country has since struggled with increasing insecurity.

Al Qaeda-linked militants operate in Libya alongside other Islamist groups, and the country is awash in weapons looted from Khadafy's many military depots.