Even though Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) has been active in Libya for more than a year, with estimates of up to 6,000 fighters there, the group has been left relatively unchallenged and unchecked. The US and its allies have directed most of their military might against Daesh in Syria and secondly, Iraq, leaving Daesh, which has spilt into Libya as a result of the pounding in those two countries of the Fertile Crescent, to set up shop in Libya, virtually unhindered.
But on Friday, the US re-directed its firepower as its warplanes carried out attacks on Daesh militants in Libya, killing at least 38 people, most likely including the senior Tunisian extremist Noureddine Chouchane, linked to the two terrorist attacks that took place in Tunisia last year. In an added coup, the Pentagon said the pounding had been administered at a time when Daesh had been actively planning attacks against US interests.
To be sure, the US has launched several unilateral raids and operations in Libya since it helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In November, a US strike in Derna reportedly killed Iraqi Daesh commander Abu Nabil who was said to be the group's leader in Libya. But Friday’s pre-dawn raid by US warplanes is the most significant military operation undertaken by the US in Libya this year.
However, in Libya, the big problem is not only the militants who are already there but Daesh recruits who continue to stream in each week from both Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Libya is a base to train militants, devise plots and launch them in places like neighboring Tunisia. Daesh has been expanding into many places in Libya, like Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte. The group has asserted itself by taking over territory and exercising terror, as evidenced by its beheadings of Egyptian Coptic Christians a year ago on a Libyan beach.
It is significant that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi exerts more control over the Daesh branch in Libya than in any other country, according to a report late last year to the UN Security Council. This conclusion is in line with US intelligence determinations that Al-Baghdadi sees the relatively lawless, impoverished North African state as fertile territory.
Because there is almost no talk of greater Western military involvement on the ground in Libya, the US can only look to use air strikes as its biggest deterrent, hoping to send a message to Daesh fighters that even if it takes months to track them down, it will eventually find them.
In the meantime, Libya continues to struggle to find a national unity government that can overcome its profound security challenges. Sharp differences between MPs of different ideological outlooks and political, regional and tribal affiliations may continue to complicate the creation of a national unity government, as stipulated by the provisions of the UN-sponsored agreement that rival factions struck in Skhirat, Morocco, on Dec. 17. Decisions in Libya are apparently contingent on the views of parties outside Libya, which means that all the stakeholders in the Libyan crisis need to work out their differences, rather than continue to fuel the intransigence of Libyan parties which by and large have insufficient political experience.
Almost five years after Gaddafi’s overthrow, Libya remains in chaos and is being fought over by a number of groups, including Daesh, leading President Obama’s top military adviser to talk a few weeks ago about stepping up efforts to curtail Daesh in Libya and taking decisive military action.
So Friday's airstrike isn't just about Chouchane or Tunisia or Egypt. It's also about the larger fight against Daesh terrorists, particularly in Libya.
