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250 US Marines Moved To Italy Due To Unrest In Libya (Video)

The tumult in Libya has prompted the Pentagon to move a crisis-response team of roughly 250 Marines from Morón Air Base in Spain to Sigonella, Sicily - in case Americans need to be evacuated from the embassy in Tripoli.

Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters at a news conference Tuesday:

"We're watching the situation very, very closely -- the unrest, the violence there certainly troubling to all of us here in the Defense Department.

"....[T]his is part of what we consider the new normal. You know, one of the things that we learned from Benghazi was the need to have an agile footprint...that you can move quickly to address just these kinds of issues in North Africa."
The Marine Air-Ground Task Force crisis-response team was created after the Sep. 11, 2012 attack of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, according to Stars and Stripes.

In addition to the Marines, the Pentagon has sent seven (soon to be eight) Ospreys and three KC-130s as part the air-to-ground task force.