US considers resuming airstrikes against Daesh in Libya
by Daily Sabah with Reuters
IstanbulNov 09, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with Reuters
Nov 09, 2016 12:00 am
The United States is prepared to carry out more air strikes against Daesh militants in Sirte if requested by Libya's U.N.-backed government, even though the militant group no longer controls much territory there, the Pentagon said on Monday.
Since August, the United States has carried out more than 350 air strikes against Daesh at the request of the Government of National Accord (GNA). However, none have been carried out since Oct. 31, officials said.
"If additional air strikes are needed, we will be prepared to deliver those air strikes," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said at a news conference.
Daesh took full control of Sirte, a city of some 80,000 inhabitants, in early 2015. Its loss would leave the jihadist group without any territorial control in Libya.
Libyan forces have the remaining militants in Sirte surrounded in part of the Ghiza Bahriya neighborhood. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that only a few blocks of the city were controlled by a few dozen Daesh fighters.
Five years after Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was toppled by NATO intervention, the country has become the breeding ground for militants as there has been no security or stability left in the war-torn country.
The oil-rich North African country descended into chaos after Western intervention and parts of the country have become a bastion for Daesh, giving militants a new base even as its territory in Syria and Iraq shrinks under constant assault.
Libya has suffered from a chronic absence of security as various actors have emerged. There are two centers of power in the crisis- hit country; the internationally recognized government in Tobruk, the Government of National Accord (GNA), and the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC). The GNA is the centerpiece of UN efforts to end the five years of chaos in Libya and it now faces an even tougher battle to assert its authority over the rival administration in the east.
The powerlessness of the central government has led many people to take up arms against the government. After the ouster and subsequent killing of the strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the army has disintegrated, and the central government has gradually lost its power without having much effect on the ongoing violent clashes between armed forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar. State security forces have also failed to protect the government, leaving the country unprotected and open to heavy clashes between rival militias trying to gain authority over the government and the country. Peace and political stability seems far off, as no rival militias have been strong enough to put an end to the ongoing war.
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