FIVE years after Western air power helped remove Muammar Qaddafi, the chances of another intervention in Libya are steadily increasing. Islamic State may be retreating in Iraq and under pressure in Syria, but in Libya it is a growing menace. At a meeting in Rome on February 2nd of the international coalition against Islamic State (IS), Libya was high on the agenda. That followed talks in Paris on January 22nd in which General Joe Dunford, the chairman of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed with his French opposite number that they were “looking to take decisive military action” against IS in Libya. It has since been confirmed that American and British special forces are already on the ground there in small numbers, making contact with local militias.
Unsurprisingly, the same conditions that have made Libya such fertile territory for IS are also making it hard to plan an intervention that would have a good chance of success. The spread of IS has been helped by a 20-month-long civil war in which it has been happy to attack both sides. In the west it faces Operation Dawn, a cobbled-together alliance of Misratan, Berber, Islamist, and other...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1X5MuqO
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