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Islamic State on rise in Libya: “Syria all over again”

Feb 7, 2016 4:41 pm By Robert Spencer

But…but…they’re losing!

isis-libya

“Islamic State on rise in Libya: ‘Syria all over again,'” by Brian Bennett and W.J. Hennigan, Chicago Tribune, February 7, 2016:

As Islamic State forces lose ground in Iraq and Syria, fighters loyal to the group have seized territory in oil-rich Libya, levying taxes at gunpoint and creating sanctuaries to launch possible attacks in North Africa and Europe, U.S. officials say.

The Pentagon has sent special operations teams to gather intelligence and launched at least one airstrike. But the White House so far has resisted calls from some senior aides to escalate the U.S. military role in another Muslim country to counter the potential threat.

Spy satellites and reconnaissance drones have shown the militants building fortifications around Sirte, on the central Mediterranean coast, and training bases for foreign fighters farther inland, the officials said.

A U.S. intelligence estimate last week concluded Islamic State has attracted more than 5,000 fighters in Libya, double the official estimate last fall, making it the extremist group’s largest and most potent affiliate outside Syria and Iraq.

Islamic State threatens to gain a “stranglehold” in Libya and “access to billions of dollars of oil revenue,” Secretary of State John Kerry said, one of several alarms the administration has raised in recent days.

He spoke at a conference last week in Rome where the U.S. and 22 other nations agreed to support the formation of a unity government in Tripoli, the capital, in an effort to restore stability and take on the militants.

Libya has had no functioning central government since the NATO bombing campaign helped a popular uprising oust ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
‘Jim’ tells tale of executed war reporter, NU grad James Foley
‘Jim’ tells tale of executed war reporter, NU grad James Foley

It has faced political chaos and a civil war ever since, with two rival governments battling for power and squabbling militias exploiting the power vacuum.

“In the absence of a true government, (militant groups) have grown unchecked,” said a U.S. defense official, not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s like Syria all over again.”

Islamic State “has a bad habit of growing in places that are ungoverned,” Tina Kaidanow, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator said last week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

She cited an urgency at the White House and its allies to move quickly before the group expands beyond its current foothold, which extends about 100 miles east and west of Sirte.

“We don’t want to see the growth of (Islamic State) outpace what will be a long-term effort to build out a successful Libyan government,” she said….

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Libya Tagged With: Sirte


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Comments

  1. WorkingClassPost says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    Here we go again, spend a few hours offline, and then come back to mayhem and murder, surely this can’t be all about islam?

    I think we should get our best security analysts to ascertain whether Libya is now under threat from islamic whatever, because it’s not really clear is it?

    Tell you what, lets put a few more billions towards defending the West from those Russian Christians, that’ll sort things out.

    • celticwarriorcanada says

      Feb 7, 2016 at 5:15 pm

      NATO and The Obama Administration need to have Their Noses Rubbed In This Stinky Shit Over and Over ! Libya now looks like what Syria will look like if The Assad Regime is toppled like The Administration would like to see happen !

      • WorkingClassPost says

        Feb 7, 2016 at 5:32 pm

        Don’t worry about Libya, I just had a word with Cameron and Merkel. They reckon that a no-fly zone over Ukraine and Syria is what’s needed.

        Plus a few more nukes on ‘our’ Eastern border, maybe add a little military aid to our Saudi ‘allies’ just in case their population open their eyes, plus, don’t forget to ignore the Turkish assault on the Kurds, shit I forgot turning a blind eye to the destruction of Yemen.

        Oh, so much to do, so little time.

        • Westman says

          Feb 8, 2016 at 12:19 am

          That no-fly zone proposal isn’t even working out. The situation in Allepo has some resonance with the “Bay Of Pigs” invasion. The US risks hostilities with Russia if it attempts no-fly zones. About 35,000 US-backed rebels are trapped in Allepo with supply lines severed and the Russians bombing them. If Allepo falls, negotiations to remove Assad are likely to be, permanently, over.

          http://www.debka.com/article/25215/Russian-hands-off-warning-to-US-Saudis-Turks-amid-crucial-Aleppo-battle

          http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/07/middleeast/syria-aleppo-siege/

        • Westman says

          Feb 8, 2016 at 12:21 am

          Allepo —> Aleppo.

        • Westman says

          Feb 8, 2016 at 1:47 am

          Alledged Kerry response to Syrian opposition for bailing on peace negotiations. Not certain about trustworthiness of this source:

          http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/candid-kerry-syrian-rebels-are-toast/ri12692

      • quotha raven says

        Feb 8, 2016 at 11:19 am

        to CelticwarriorCanada, who sez “NATO and The Obama Administration need to have Their Noses Rubbed In This Stinky Shit Over and Over !”

        I suggest it is also important to give proper specific credit to Hillary Clinton, so that sleeping American voters might appreciate what she hath wrought – but, on second thought, “What does it matter now?”

        Cheers!

        quotha raven

      • Kepha says

        Feb 9, 2016 at 4:21 pm

        @celticwarriorCanada and quotha raven

        I cheerfully concurr that Shrillary Shrooooooooo, who belongs in the zoooooooo, should have her nose rubbed in this. It has been known for quite some time that eastern Libya was a hotbed of Qaida sympathy and a fertile recruiting ground for jihad. Yet it was the policies of this [mal-]administration that encouraged dissent against the aging (and tamed) drag queen Qaddafi. How dare we call Shrillary competent!

  2. Angemon says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 7:35 pm

    As Islamic State forces lose ground in Iraq and Syria, fighters loyal to the group have seized territory in oil-rich Libya, levying taxes at gunpoint and creating sanctuaries to launch possible attacks in North Africa and Europe, U.S. officials say.

    Does anyone want guacamole? You know, to snack while we watch ISIS playing Whack-A-Mole.

  3. Jack Holan says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 8:59 pm

    What would decimate Europe and stop them dead in their tracks from participating in another coalition is a simultaneous attack on 4 cities in Europe. I’m not giving new ideas to anyone and I’m sure NATO and the EU have factored in this scenario. A few months ago there were reports of two discoveries of separate shipments of 5000 rifles. Since then, the story went dead cold. If IS hit Rome, Nice, Berlin and Copenhagen with 2000 terrorists for 8-12 hours to create terror and then withdraw; it would be devastating. This is their eventual end-game! They don’t plan to stay in North Africa and the ME, forever. I believe what they say. So far they’ve kept to what they saw whereas Obama…..

  4. Christianblood says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 10:39 pm

    Blame the “Regime Changers” of this world. .

    • Anne Smith says

      Feb 8, 2016 at 5:16 am

      Oh how true. If Cameron had kept his silly fatuous smirking face out of Libya and left Gaddafi to keep these barbarians under control we should not be facing the thousands of “immigrants” pouring across the Mediterranean and the prospect of the entire country of Libya being under the control of ISIS – if it isn’t already.
      Cameron is one of the biggest self deluded fools in Europe and terribly pleased with himself.

  5. Myxlplik says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 10:54 pm

    More Muslim freedom, from Arab Spring, Freedom Fries anyone?

  6. Dan Jones says

    Feb 7, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    Quit talking about those peace loving followers of the pedophile…
    (/sarc)

    More End Time News At:
    http://www.shininginthedark.com/?page_id=4526

  7. mortimer says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 1:56 am

    The answer to all this growing madness is deprogram Muslims right out of Islam.

    This Death Cult has only one product.

  8. Miao Zedong says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 2:16 am

    Obama “leading from behind”.

    • Jack Holan says

      Feb 8, 2016 at 6:09 pm

      Unfortunately BO stepped up at this time in =history or for that matter ever. G-d only knows Europe is full of talkers just like him. The Men of action who are brave but have their hands tied behind their backs due to the Chain of Command are our Military and other Services. The Russians unfortunately keeping their word or what is expected of them, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and all the other friendly refined peaceful States have been Leaders, just in that savage way they are accustomed to if you ask their favorite Piñatas

      • Kepha says

        Feb 9, 2016 at 4:25 pm

        I don’t know. It seems that the O ‘mal-]administration is too busy making our military co-ed (and putting in place standards that ensure that the girls won’t fail) and safe havens for homosexuality, cross-dressing, and gender re-assignment at taxpayer expense. There seems to have been a purge of patriots and their replacement by careerists.

  9. F c king says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 11:36 am

    Kasha fi was a strange dresser, but he kept order.

  10. Herman says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 5:24 pm

    I am waiting for nato, eu and us to “defend the civilians”, like they were so eager to do when the bombed kadaffi…

    Or are we waiting again for Russia?

  11. Down Under Doug says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    Two and a half years ago I was told by my Alawite acquaintance that Syrian Christians would be slaughtered if Asaad was hindered or taken out by the USA military.

    He said that Asaad is the only one that would not kill them. He has relatives in Syria.

    So, a common man who spends his day working as a high school teacher has a more accurate vision of the Syrian future than the entire Obama Administration?

    Is it even possible to understand just how incompetent the Obamanations are?

  12. Christine Chiomento says

    Feb 8, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    The minute I heard that Clinton woman spout out about how “We came, we saw, he died!”, as she gloated over the death of Gadhafi, I realized that we here in the West were in far bigger trouble than we might have thought we were. Because, we are being run amok by the most morally bankrupt characters even our imaginations could never have dreamed up! I know about the faults of those leaders, such as Gadhafi, but the one thing they had in common was the ability to keep order in their respective countries, giving their people at least a fighting chance at a decent way of life. Now, with them gone, thanks to those in our current reckless, morally bankrupt gov’t., the terrorists have them all by the throat, and are making their lives hell-on-earth!

    • Angemon says

      Feb 9, 2016 at 6:17 pm

      And that was before her brain injury in 2012.

  13. EricStoner says

    Feb 10, 2016 at 8:10 pm

    Like a slow rolling disaster.

    Kerry Admits Syria Missteps Causing Trouble in Iraq: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/06/13/Kerry-Admits-ISIS-Now-a-Threat-To-The-World-Because-Ignored-Syria-Conflict

    2014 Obama Touts Success Against Al Qaeda in Yemen as Proven Counter-Terrorism Strategy: http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/01/09/flashback-2014-obama-touts-success-against-al-qaeda-in-yemen/

    12/2/2015 Al Qaeda Takes Two Towns in Yemen: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/02/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0TL0BQ20151202#UDfg4PWA8U7e1fGk.97

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