CAIRO — It was, by all appearances, a jihadists’ pool party — staged at an abandoned American diplomatic compound in the Libyan capital.

In video footage posted online Sunday, a group of laughing, whooping men identified as members of an Islamist-linked group – some in black paramilitary-appearing outfits, some in summertime civilian wear – clowned, mugged for the camera and did swan dives off a second-floor balcony into a swimming pool said to be in an annex of the embassy in Tripoli, which was evacuated last month amid heavy fighting.

The images were emblematic of Libya in free fall, with the oil-rich North African nation spiraling into all-out civil war more than three years after the toppling of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. And the spectacle of a breached diplomatic compound – even one empty of any American personnel – stirred memories of the Benghazi attack nearly two years ago that killed the then-ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.

The current U.S. ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones, who has been overseeing American diplomatic activity from Malta, said on Twitter that the video footage appeared to have been shot in a residential compound at the embassy.

A commander for an Islamist faction called Libyan Dawn told Associated Press on Sunday that the militia had “secured” the residential annex. Witnesses cited by the news agency said the compound did not appear to have been ransacked or looted, though some windows were broken, and it quoted the commander as urging foreign envoys to return.

It is not clear when the video was shot.

The American diplomatic staff was spirited out of Tripoli after fighting – centered on the capital’s international airport – came too close to the embassy grounds.