BansheeOne Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Britain 'moving towards military action against Isil in Libya' Government says it is “extremely concerned" by the rapid rise of Isil and other extremist groups in Libya and is considering plans for intervening to tackle the threat. By Tim Ross, Senior Political Correspondent, Ben Farmer, and Nick Allen in Washington10:53PM GMT 11 Dec 2015 Britain could launch military action in Libya next, Government sources have said amid fears that Islamic State militants will use their new stronghold along a stretch of the Mediterranean coast to target Europe. Ministers at the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence say they are “extremely concerned" by the rapid rise of Isil and other extremist groups in Libya and are considering plans for intervening to tackle the threat. A Government source said ministers were "moving in the direction" of a plan to send military support alongside European allies to defeat Isil in Libya. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, on Friday called for international efforts to crush the Islamic State jihadists to extend to the north African country. "We are at war, we have an enemy, that we must fight and crush in Syria, in Iraq and soon in Libya too," he said. France has been sending spy planes over Libya to assess the scale of the threat posed from the country, which has fallen into chaos since its dictator, Col Muammar Gaddafi, was ousted with Western military backing in 2011. The UN believes 2,000 to 3,000 fighters are operating there and Isil now controls a stretch of the Mediterranean coastline around the northern Libyan city of Sirte. The stronghold gives the jihadists a venue for training camps on the border of Europe and free access to target western ships at sea. Penny Mordaunt, armed forces minister, recently told MPs the Government was “closely monitoring the growing threat from extremist groups in Libya”, including groups affiliated with Isil. She said: “These groups threaten Libya, her regional neighbours and UK interests in the region.” Tobias Ellwood, foreign office minister, said where Isil has a foothold along the Mediterranean “we are working closely with international partners to develop our understanding of its presence, and how to tackle it there”. Asked if Libya could be the next target for British military intervention, a Government source said: “Things are moving in that direction. We are taking it one step at a time.” Italy has been drawing up plans for a European military coalition to back any Libyan Government and seeking allies to lend help. Any plan would have to wait for Libya to appoint a recognised national government. The source said: “There needs to be a recognised government in place in Libya that can ask us for help – then we will do whatever we can to help them deal with Isil." Another source said: “We are not at the decision point on what to do. You need an effective government of sorts to invite you to do stuff, which is what’s lacking at the moment.” [...] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/12046387/britain-military-action-isil-libya.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 (edited) In Libya, the West Heeds the Call of Intervention Analysis January 19, 2016 | 09:15 GMT ForecastA Western coalition is preparing to launch an offensive against the Islamic State in Libya.Even so, Libya's foreign patrons will continue to support the U.N.-backed political agreement.Deeply entrenched differences among Libyan militias will impede political stability.Even if an intervention successfully dislodges the Islamic State, it will fail to materially improve the country's security conditions.Analysis Though the fight against the Islamic State has many theaters, the front line of the conflict was drawn years ago in Syria and Iraq, devoid as they were of governments that could effectively control the whole of their respective territories. But as the Islamic State loses ground in Syria and Iraq, the group has found a home in another country — a country arguably as bereft of central authority, a country that may, too, be the object of international military intervention in the coming weeks. That country is Libya, which is now home to as many as 5,000 militants loyal to the Islamic State. In some ways, Libya was a logical place for the militants to end up. After all, eastern Libya has been an important arms exporter to Syrian rebels since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. They began to arrive in early 2014, though many were simply returning to their home country after having fought and trained in Syria and Iraq. They arrived in the eastern city of Darnah but have since spread throughout the country, establishing a presence in Nofaliya, Ghardabiya and most noticeably Sirte. The Islamic State has also encroached on Libya's oil-producing regions. And even though most of the ports in these regions are currently offline, Libyan authorities cannot afford to let their only viable source of revenue fall into the hands of extremists. Without that revenue, they would be unable to fund the social services that would instill the kind of loyalty that keeps their constituents from joining groups like the Islamic State in the first place. Authorities cannot contain the Islamic State on their own, hence the calls for international intervention. Preparations Are Underway And it is a call that several countries seem willing to heed. Libya's proximity to Europe makes Islamic State advances a security concern for Western countries, particularly Mediterranean countries. Not only would Libya be ideally suited as a launching pad for terrorist attacks, greater conflict could produce even more refugees, which Europe has struggled to effectively manage. Moreover, Western countries are concerned that the Islamic State could further destabilize nearby countries such as Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. Italy and Spain are particularly concerned about how Libyan insecurity would affect their oil and natural gas interests. Currently, the Islamic State has not infringed on the areas in which Italy and Spain operate, but that could change if the group starts to advance westward. For these reasons, it appears increasingly likely that a military intervention is in the offing, but the exact shape and scope of the intervention would depend on how rapidly the security situation deteriorates and how effectively a national unity government in Libya legitimizes its leadership. What is clear is that, for now, the military intervention would focus on empowering Libya's indigenous capabilities. As with other Western-led anti-Islamic State operations, the mission would be to train and advise Libyan security forces and to improve intelligence collection. Limited targeted airstrikes and support from special operations units, particularly against high-value targets, can also be expected. Preparations are already underway. Reports from Jan. 4 indicate that the British Special Air Service will work alongside some 1,000 British troops who would in turn be supported by 6,000 U.S. and European military personnel. Italy would lead the operation. In fact, the Italian air force has already deployed four AMX fighter aircraft and a Predator drone to Sicily's Trapani airport. Increased aerial activity suggests that Italy is enhancing the role it plays in conducting reconnaissance and collecting imagery. On Jan. 18, Germany's defense minister also raised the prospect of participating in a military operation in Libya. Of course, foreign military aid in Libya is nothing new. In 2015, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates launched airstrikes in support of the Libyan National Army, the powerful militia aligned with the eastern government in Tobruk. In mid-2015, the United States launched two airstrikes in Ajdabiya that killed two Islamic State leaders and one airstrike in Darnah a few months later. But as modestly successful as the airstrikes were, they could not by themselves dislodge the Islamic State, something that would require a functional ground force. Members of the international coalition understand as much, and the way they create that ground force will be informed by lessons that were learned in Syria and Iraq. It was in this terrain that Western troops most recently fought a costly and inefficient counterinsurgency, which revealed the importance of engaging local actors and empowering domestic security forces. Accordingly, the coalition will try to work with regional partners to collect intelligence on potential targets, but the focus will be on uniting disparate militant groups in a broad anti-Islamic State operation. If the Western coalition can be expected to act more intelligently in Libya, it can also be expected to act more rapidly. Geopolitically, there are simply fewer impediments to intervention. Unlike in Syria and Iraq, foreign patrons do not see Libya as a theater for a larger proxy war in the Middle East, so the consequences for supporting one group over another are less dire. Geographically, Libya's flat, open terrain lends itself more easily to troop movement and precision airstrikes than the mountainous areas of Syria. An Example of Disunity But several things need to happen inside Libya before the coalition can get started. Western countries need a united government that at least theoretically represents the entire country so that there is a group with which the coalition can coordinate its operations. It is little surprise, then, that several countries have supported the acceleration of unity talks between the House of Representatives, the internationally recognized government in eastern Libya, and the General National Congress, the Tripoli-based body that the West believes undermines the authority of the House of Representatives and thus the legitimacy of a military intervention. While the West would prefer a government that effectively consolidates all the political and military forces operating in Libya, it would settle for any entity that enables them to build a security apparatus in which the country's various militias voluntarily participate. The U.N.-brokered unity government, which will be known as the Government of National Accord, is slated to begin its mandate in late January. Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj will govern with a presidential council that aims to gain buy-in from different regional and tribal factions. Notably, the General National Congress and House of Representatives are supposed to approve Government of National Accord members, casting doubt on the possibility of the government's implementation. And therein lies the difficulty of cobbling together a cohesive security force in a country as politically diverse as Libya. A successful intervention depends on at least tacit support from Libya's militias, but those militias have different long-term objectives and political orientations. Frequently the only thing they share is a historical hatred for one another. Oil revenues pay militia salaries, so their members tend to fight one another for primacy of oil infrastructure and facilities. Still, most groups understand the long-term threat the Islamic States poses to their financial well-being — an understanding that may well lead to a higher degree of cooperation. The question of who would lead a unified military perfectly exemplifies Libya's political disunity. The natural choice is Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who heads the Libyan National Army in the east. He is supported by several eastern cities, including Benghazi, Bayda, Tobruk, and Marj, as well in the west, thanks to his strategic alliance with the city of Zentan. More important, he was the military commander under the House of Representatives in Tobruk. https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/libya-west-heeds-call-intervention Edited January 24, 2016 by BansheeOne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Nevah happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 US considering fresh military action in Libya over Isis threat Pentagon looking at ‘military options’ to stop Islamic State from gaining more ground, four years after US air campaign helped topple Libyan dictator Gaddafi Spencer Ackerman Wednesday 27 January 2016 21.02 GMT The Pentagon is considering fresh military action in Libya more than four years after conducting an air campaign that helped topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Officials are currently “looking at military options” to stop the Islamic State militant group from gaining ground in another oil-rich Mideast nation, said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. At present, US efforts in Libya are focussed on identifying local allies to work with, for what a senior military officer has envisioned as a “decisive” confrontation with Isis. [...] Cook acknowledged that the “metastasis” of Isis beyond its primary base in Iraq and Syria has prompted the Pentagon to revisit the question of a renewed war in Libya. A “small group” of US forces had made contact with Libyan militiamen, “simply to get a sense of who the players are”, Cook said, amid a fractured security landscape with multiple and overlapping combatants. Although the US personnel are likely to be special operations forces, Cook did not specify how many of them had taken part in the mission, nor if they were still operating in Libya. Cook portrayed the contact as closer to a broad assessment mission than the so-called “shaping operations” that precede imminent combat. “We are extremely worried about the metastasis of Isil in a number of locations, Libya being just one of those locations,” Cook said. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has forecasted an expanded effort worldwide against a jihadist army whose persistence and reach have taken the world by surprise. Defense secretary Ashton Carter said in a speech that beyond Iraq and Syria, the US would launch a “flexible and nimble response” against Isis in its north African strongholds and elsewhere, citing a November strike in Libya that killed an accused Isis leader. Last week, the senior US military officer, joint chiefs of staff chairman General Joseph Dunford, said he and his French counterpart were preparing for “decisive military action” against Isis in Libya. Dunford said he desired nesting a military campaign within a political settlement that has eluded Libya and its foreign allies since the downfall of Gaddafi. In December, the presence of a US special forces unit in Libya was revealed after photographs of the troops were posted on a Libyan military Facebook page. The incident was preceded by an attempt at making contact with potential allies amongst Libyan forces. Cook did not clarify whether the December foray was the only one, but occasionally used the present tense to refer to the outreach. “They’re trying to get a clearer picture of what’s happening there, and they’ve made contact with people on the ground to try and get a better sense not only of the threat that [isis] poses there but the dynamic on the ground in terms of the security situation,” Cook said. “We’re looking for partners who can give us a better sense of the security situation, and it’s not just the United States that has a keen interest here, it is our foreign partners as well.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/27/us-considering-fresh-military-action-in-libya-over-isis-threat Date 29.01.2016 Merkel and Renzi agree on united front against human traffickers Germany and Italy have announced plans to fight human traffickers as Europe continues to struggle with a severe influx of refugees. Both countries also spoke in favor of a united European response to the refugee crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi highlighted new proposals aimed at establishing a joint training mission in Tunisia to strengthen security forces in neighboring Libya. The move by the two neighbors was reportedly aimed at curbing the flow of Libyan migrants into Europe, who often have to undertake perilous boat journeys across the Mediterranean Sea sailing toward Italian territory, notably the island of Lampedusa. According to Chancellor Merkel, both countries have "maximum interest" in boosting Libya's security in order to combat illegal immigration and human trafficking. The chancellor added that details about the intended training mission remained unclear, mainly on account of the slow progress in assembling a unity government in Libya. "We have to fight illegality and convert it into legality," Merkel said after the bilateral meeting in Berlin. [...] http://www.dw.com/en/merkel-and-renzi-agree-on-united-front-against-human-traffickers/a-19012232 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Nothing will happen. Nobody wants to do anything, they just want to appear to be doing something. It would be rather fitting if DAESH was to really take hold and switch their focus to life after Shams. Europeans are simply incapable of doing anything meaningful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 How to confuse the enemy: France says ‘no question’ of strikes against ISIS in Libya By AFP RomeTuesday, 2 February 2016 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday refuted reports Paris was pushing for military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in Libya. “There is absolutely no question of military intervention in Libya,” Fabius told reporters on the sidelines of a Rome meeting of countries involved in combatting ISIS. “There is pressure (for that) but that is not the position of the government.” http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2016/02/02/France-says-no-question-of-strikes-against-ISIS-in-Libya-.html France considers military intervention in Libya Thursday, 04 February 2016 12:12 The French government said on Wednesday that it is considering military operations against Daesh in Libya should the appropriate conditions be fulfilled, Anadolu has reported. Spokesman Stephane Le Foll said that the required conditions are the formation of a Libyan government in the capital Tripoli, a subsequent request from the government for a military operation by France and, as happened in Mali, an international resolution for such an intervention. The media in France has said recently that Daesh has been trying to control Libyan oil supplies. The group is building up its power continuously, it has been reported, mainly with new members from North Africa. The UN believes that Daesh has between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in Libya. According to Anadolu, France has not yet carried out any military operation in Libya, but it has been making reconnaissance sorties over the border from its military base in Niger. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/23735-france-considers-military-intervention-in-libya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 World | Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:12am EST Related: WORLD, LIBYA U.S. aircraft hit militants in Libya, more than 40 reported dead TRIPOLI U.S. warplanes carried out air strikes early on Friday morning in the western Libyan city of Sabratha, where Islamic State militants operate, killing as many as 40 people. A U.S. military spokesman said the attacks targeted a senior Tunisian militant linked to attacks in Tunisia last year. Sabratha's mayor, Hussein al-Thwadi, told Reuters the planes struck at 3.30 a.m. (0130 GMT), hitting a building in the Qasr Talil district in which foreign workers were living. He said 41 people had been killed and six wounded. The death toll could not immediately be confirmed with other officials. Tunisian security sources have said they believe Tunisian Islamic State fighters have been trained in camps near Sabratha, which is close to the Tunisian border. Two major attacks in Tunisia last year claimed by Islamic State - one on a Sousse resort hotel and another on a Tunis museum - were carried out by gunmen who officials said had trained in Libya. The New York Times earlier reported that Friday's air strikes targeted a senior Tunisian operative, Noureddine Chouchane, connected to both of last year's attacks. The mayor said officials visited the site of the strike and found weapons in the building, but he did not give any further details. Some Tunisians, a Jordanian and two women were among the dead, he said. Several Tunisians who had recently arrived in Sabratha were among survivors. [...] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-idUSKCN0VS17U Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Terrorflieger! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 US managed to bomb "IS stronghold" managing to kill two Serbian hostages diplomats taken hostage in November 2015. among others... Fucking great.http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/20/africa/libya-us-airstrike-isis/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ink Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 US managed to bomb "IS stronghold" managing to kill two Serbian hostages diplomats taken hostage in November 2015. among others... Fucking great.http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/20/africa/libya-us-airstrike-isis/index.htmlAbsolutely tragic. My condolences to the families. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Peter Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Stuart's Only Ethically Acceptable Pinpoint Accurate Precision Guided Munitions at work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Falcon Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 It seems Canada might be willing to join a Libya mission: Canadian chief of defence staff General Jonathan Vance suggested Canada could play a military role in countering the Islamic State in Libya. "Watch this space," Gen Vance said during 19 February comments at the annual Conference of Defence Associations, "I think the international community is very interested in Libya and I don't know whether we will be involved militarily, but we will certainly be involved somehow." He noted that "Libya sits at a crossroads of some very important and very dangerous things that are happening across the world. It's affecting Europe, it's affecting Africa, it's affecting even our forces deployed as part of the MFO [Multinational Force and Observers] in the Sinai." If Vance is serious about this then that's the first sign of a nation which actually fights being willing to go into Libya. Italy and Spain saying they are willing to send troops doesn't say much, because they tend to want the areas of a country which don't see a lot of fighting. Canada, by contrast, is willing to have its soldiers do some of the heavy lifting of building the peace by eliminating Radical Islamist. So its involvement in a proposed Libya force is a moderate-sized game-changer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detonable Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Actually, it isn't yet clear who was in the house. However, it wouldn't be the first time Western hostages were in a building destroyed from the air. It isn't likely that the 60 ISIS members in the house would have killed less than two people if the attack hadn't happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 That is Putin calculus. Be careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 ... However, it wouldn't be the first time Western hostages were in a building destroyed from the air. Watch out, Stuart will now say that if you do it multiple time it shows you wanted that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 It seems Canada might be willing to join a Libya mission: Canadian chief of defence staff General Jonathan Vance suggested Canada could play a military role in countering the Islamic State in Libya. "Watch this space," Gen Vance said during 19 February comments at the annual Conference of Defence Associations, "I think the international community is very interested in Libya and I don't know whether we will be involved militarily, but we will certainly be involved somehow." He noted that "Libya sits at a crossroads of some very important and very dangerous things that are happening across the world. It's affecting Europe, it's affecting Africa, it's affecting even our forces deployed as part of the MFO [Multinational Force and Observers] in the Sinai." If Vance is serious about this then that's the first sign of a nation which actually fights being willing to go into Libya. Italy and Spain saying they are willing to send troops doesn't say much, because they tend to want the areas of a country which don't see a lot of fighting. Canada, by contrast, is willing to have its soldiers do some of the heavy lifting of building the peace by eliminating Radical Islamist. So its involvement in a proposed Libya force is a moderate-sized game-changer.this is all quite odd, considering their qualms about bombing ISIS, I suspect this is the sort of thinking which lead to us getting drawn into 10 years worth of combat in Afghanistan, all started as a stability mission in Kabul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Going to Libya whitout a remit to kill everyone is a bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Les Francaise est arrivee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Falcon Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Daesh catches a beatdown in Benghazi: Military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government said on Tuesday they had taken control of two key neighbourhoods in Benghazi, building on gains made against Islamist fighters over the previous three days. The military said it had full control of the districts of Boatni and Laithi and claimed advances in several other areas. A hospital source said 20 people had been killed and 45 wounded in the latest clashes. The eastern city of Benghazi has seen some of the worst violence in the conflict that has plagued Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising five years ago. The violence escalated when military commander Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign in 2014 against Islamists and other armed groups, with the factions taking up entrenched positions in Benghazi's streets. On Tuesday residents celebrated the army's advances by sounding car horns and setting off fireworks. Some returned to their homes for the first time in months to check for damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Going to Libya whitout a remit to kill everyone is a bad idea.yes ROE can make or break a mission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Tan Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Haftar is an ex Qaddafi man. He is looking to kill everyone from the assorted militias. Funny....how it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Falcon Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Haftar is an ex Qaddafi man. He is looking to kill everyone from the assorted militias. Funny....how it works. More like he's out to get rid of Daesh, Ansar Al-Sharia, and any militias that are Muslim Brotherhood-aligned. This is also what makes him popular with Egypt's military, which has facilitated the supply to the LNA of fighter-bombers, MRAPs, and munitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Pentagon Has Plan to Cripple ISIS in Libya With Air Barrage By ERIC SCHMITT MARCH 8, 2016 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has presented the White House with the most detailed set of military options yet for attacking the growing Islamic State threat in Libya, including a range of potential airstrikes against training camps, command centers, munitions depots and other militant targets. Airstrikes against as many as 30 to 40 targets in four areas of the country would aim to deal a crippling blow to the Islamic State’s most dangerous affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria, and open the way for Western-backed Libyan militias to battle Islamic State fighters on the ground. Allied bombers would carry out additional airstrikes to support the militias on the ground. The military option was described by five American officials who have been briefed on the plans and spoke about them on the condition of anonymity because of their confidential nature. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter outlined this option to President Obama’s top national security advisers at a so-called principals meeting on Feb. 22. But the plan is not being actively considered, at least for now, while the Obama administration presses ahead with a diplomatic initiative to form a unity government from rival factions inside Libya, administration officials said. Even so, the United States military is poised to carry out limited airstrikes if ordered against terrorists in Libya who threatened Americans or American interests, just as it did against an Islamic State training camp in western Libya last month. “We will continue to use the full range of tools to eliminate ISIL threats wherever they are,” Mr. Obama said on Feb. 25, after convening the National Security Council to discuss combating the Islamic State, also called ISIL or ISIS. But the broader scale of the airstrikes option prepared by the Pentagon’s Africa Command and the highly secretive Joint Special Operations Command illuminated differences in perspectives and short-term goals within the administration. The scope of the military plan surprised some senior administration officials, and it drew warnings from some State Department officials that such airstrikes, if not coordinated properly, could jeopardize the United Nations-led effort to forge a unity government from Libya’s fractious political actors. The detailed military planning does expand the choices available to Mr. Obama in the coming months as he and his advisers, along with allies like Britain, France and Italy, try to manage a tricky balancing act: nurture a fragile political process to form a unity government in Libya but not wait so long that the Islamic State grows too big for defeat by a limited — and politically acceptable — military action. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed up the current thinking about this juggling of priorities and the possibility of taking more aggressive military action in the future, at a news conference last week. “Where there is opportunity to conduct operations against ISIL, to disrupt them at this point and not undermine the political process, that is where we are,” General Dunford said. “At some point in the future, if I believe we are at risk with that strategy, I will certainly come back to the secretary and make some different recommendations.” The newly refined Pentagon planning comes amid increasing reports that British, American, French and possibly even Italian Special Operations forces have been on the ground in Libya for months. They have been conducting reconnaissance, gathering intelligence, vetting and possibly advising Libyan militias deemed good partners to fight the Islamic State in strongholds such as Surt along a 150-mile section of territory the terrorist group controls. As recently as last fall, senior American commanders and intelligence officials said they lacked sufficient information about the Islamic State in Libya even to identify targets to bomb. But this effort on the ground among special operators does not appear to be well coordinated, and seems to reflect the concern of each clandestine forces should they be called on suddenly to speed up any unilateral military strikes against the Islamic State. The militant group’s fighters now number as many as 6,500, more than double their ranks last fall, according to a Defense Department assessment. Pressure is growing on the United States and its Western allies to intervene militarily. Britain announced last week that it was sending 20 military trainers to Tunisia to help counter illegal cross-border movements from neighboring Libya. Tunisia has already built a 125-mile earthen wall that stretches about half the length of its border with Libya in an attempt to prevent militants from infiltrating. Italy last month agreed for the first time to allow American armed drones to take off from an air base in Sicily to defend coalition forces fighting Islamic State extremists in Libya. Last Friday, Italy’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the release of two Italians kidnapped in Libya in July. That good news came a day after ministry officials grimly announced that two other Italian hostages in the country had likely been killed in clashes between ISIS fighters and local militia fighters near Sabratha. [...] Libya’s political leaders are divided between two loose political alliances in the capital, Tripoli, and the eastern city of Tobruk. The United Nations effort to form a unity government, led by the German diplomat Martin Kobler, has been stymied by the factional differences. Last month, Mr. Kobler warned the West to move carefully if a unity government is formed, and not press it immediately to support foreign military intervention. He said that “very intense” anti-foreigner feelings run deep among Libyan politicians and that pressuring a new government to support outside military action against ISIS could undermine it. Two prominent Libya specialists offered the same warnings to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. “A great risk is that outside intervention against the Islamic State, before a cohesive government is formed, could exacerbate political conflicts, bolster the power of local militias, and throw the country into greater turmoil,” said Frederic Wehrey, a Libya expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who recently returned from two weeks in the country. Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst with the International Crisis Group in Rome, told lawmakers: “Rushing an international military intervention in Libya to counter ISIS would be shortsighted and would probably backfire. Any such intervention should be discreet, measured and linked to a political strategy aimed at bringing Libyan factions together into a single government.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/world/middleeast/pentagon-considers-military-options-against-isis-in-libya.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=world&partner=IFTTT&_r=2&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Middle%20East&action=swipe®ion=FixedLeft&pgtype=article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Falcon Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Yesterday saw a bloody border raid into Tunisia by Daesh: Tunisian security forces pressed a search for jihadists near the Libyan border on Tuesday after a deadly raid the authorities described as an unprecedented assault by the Islamic State group. Analysts said Monday's attacks show that jihadists are keen to spread their influence from Libya to Tunisia and to set up a new stronghold in the country. Prime Minister Habib Essid said about 50 extremists were believed to have taken part in the coordinated dawn attacks on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts in the border town of Ben Guerdane. He said 36 attackers were killed and seven captured in a fierce firefight that also saw the deaths of seven civilians and 12 security force personnel. Essid said the militants "murdered one internal security force member in his own home" and that three civilians and 14 security personnel were also wounded. This strikes me as similar to what Daesh did in the Sinai last July: The sort of coordinated attack that would have worked against the SAA in pre- Russian Intervention Syria, but which does damage but ultimately fails when used against better trained forces with better morale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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