History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi passports for travel to Libya, and in March 1982, the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyan oil. Gaddafi reportedly spent hundreds of millions of the government's money on training and arming Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega, the President of Nicaragua, was his ally. In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against execution of two dissidents. Communications intercepted by MI5 show that Tripoli ordered its diplomats to direct violence against the demonstrators. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher. The incident led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United
Embassy of Libya, London and were not resumed until 1999, whereupon the embassy was moved to its current location in Knightsbridge. The embassy was again the focus of attention in 2011 during the Libyan Civil War. There were several protests in the early part of the year against the Gaddafi government's crackdown on protesters in Benghazi, culminating in the occupation of the embassy's roof and the swapping of the flag with that of the National Transitional Council (now the current Libyan flag). In July of that year the British government expelled the existing embassy staff and formally recognised the NTC as the sole legitimate