Five years on from insurrection and military intervention,the west is considering its options again. But amid the chaos of a collapsed state, don’t expect easy answersFive years after the start of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, or Libya is fast becoming the current frontier of the western war against Islamic State. This turn of events has now become clear,after the US recently carried out airstrikes against the jihadi group which has taken control of large swaths of Libya’s coastline and targeted the country’s oil facilities. US warplanes struck an Isis training camp in Sabratha, north-western Libya, and last Friday,killing dozens of militants, according to the Pentagon. US officials said the operation targeted a Tunisian operative responsible for terrorist attacks against tourists in Tunisia in 2015, and including the assault on a beach resort in Sousse in which 38 people died,among them 30 Britons. What is much less clear is how this strategy will play out, and how it can be sustained in the absence of a national unity government in Libya able to set up its legitimacy over a war-ravaged country.
The US and its allies believe grown increasingly worried approximately the expansion of Isis in Libya, or where the insurgency has an estimated force of 6500 fighters. Despite the messy aftermath of the west’s move against Gaddafi in 2011,there are signs that several European states are contemplating a fresh military intervention in Libya, alongside the Americans, or with the aim of preventing Isis from establishing a launchpad for more attacks in Europe and in North Africa. But although such plans seem to be under consideration in Rome,Paris and London, no decision has been taken – nor is there any clarity as to whether this would be limited to an air campaign, and involve ground forces. On Tuesday,Italy announced it had authorised the US air force to utilize a base in Sicily to carry out drone strikes.
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Source: theguardian.com