PRO 466 Advance Work: British Ambassador Dominic Asquith

Advance Work
Name
Institution
Advance Work
On 11 June 2012, the British Ambassador to Libya, Sir Dominic Asquith narrowly escaped attack when his convoy was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade. During the incident, two of his bodyguards were wounded. One sustained injuries on the shoulder. The convoy was attacked while returning from a hotel in Benghazi where they had gone to take some meals. The attack took place only 300 yards from the British consulate office in Benghazi’s al-Rabha neighborhood. The rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the front of the vehicle and blew out the windscreen. The attacked was an armored vehicle. The attackers were aiming at the vehicle that was ferrying the ambassador. However, the convoy had experienced some motor problems which led to change of convoy positions. This was the only way that the ambassador’s vehicle was spared from the attack. The attackers were reported to be the Islamist militant groups who were opposed to the presence of Western officials in a Muslim country. Benghazi was the stronghold of the anti-Gaddafi’s Islamist groups (Davidson, 2013).
Although the attack was executed, the attack would have been avoided in many ways. First, it was in the knowledge of the ambassador’s office that Benghazi was the stronghold of the Islamist groups. In fact Benghazi was the headquarters of the Libyan rebels who were fighting against the battles to depose Muammar Gaddafi in the year 2011. The ambassador’s office was located near such area which was risk (Sithole, 2012). It would have been wise to transfer the ambassador’s office to avoid being surrounded with Islamists who were armed and against the presence of the Westerners.
Secondly, London and Washington alongside France forces had played a major part in the air assault that led to forcing out Gaddafi in the previous year. The three forces had b...