Warning of jihadist threat, Libya PM pleads for help
Warning of jihadist threat, Libya PM pleads for help Subscribe My Channel! .The head of Libya #39;s recognised government has pleaded for more help from the international community, warning that...
By: Yuksu News
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Warning of jihadist threat, Libya PM pleads for help - Video
By Editorial Board January 12 at 7:21 PM
WHEN LIBYAS attempt to construct a new, democratic political system faltered after 2012, the Obama administration and NATO allies who had intervened to support the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gaddafi could still rationalize that they had headed off the mass bloodshed and civil war that the Gaddafi regime threatened and that later overtook Syria. The respite, however, proved to be temporary. As 2015 begins, Libya is well on its way to becoming the Middle Easts second war zone with the same side effects of empowering radical jihadists and destabilizing neighboring countries.
The sprawling but sparsely populated country of 7million is now split between two governments, parliaments and armies, one based in the eastern city of Tobruk and the other in the capital, Tripoli. While Syrias war is fought along the Arab worlds Sunni-Shiite divide, in Libya the contest pits the regions secular Sunnis against Islamists (along with minority Berbers). Since that same divide dominates the politics of Egypt, Tunisia, the Palestinian territories and much of the rest of the Maghreb, outside powers have predictably picked sides: Egypt and the United Arab Emirates back the secular forces in the east, while Turkey, Qatar and Sudan support the Islamist Libya Dawn in the west.
This mounting conflict is occurring not so much because of NATOs 2011 intervention, which was limited to airstrikes, but because of its swift withdrawal and subsequent failure to assist in stabilizing the country. Without institutions or trained and loyal security forces, an interim government could not gain control over the numerous militias that had sprung up to fight the Gaddafi regime. As the situation has steadily worsened in the past two years, the Obama administration, France, Britain and other participants in the NATO intervention have reacted not by dispatching aid but by shutting down their embassies and washing their hands of Libya. The task of trying to broker peace has been handed to a U.N. mediator, Bernardino Len, who in recent interviews has described his mission as quixotic.
As in Syria, this passivity could soon produce a serious threat to Western interests. According to the U.S. Africa Command, 200 jihadists linked to the Islamic State already have set up a training camp in the eastern Libyan town of Derna. Only 300miles from southern Europe, Libya could far more easily than Yemen or western Iraq become the launching pad for more attacks on Paris and other Western capitals.
The only sign that the Obama administration is conscious of this threat has been the issuance with its allies of empty statements, such as one Saturday that congratulated Mr.Len for scheduling talks in Geneva this week among some of the warring parties. Real progress toward ending the fighting would require more energetic action, such as diverting Libyas oil revenues to an escrow account, enforcing an arms embargo, freezing the international assets of both sides and pressuring Egypt and other outside powers to cease their interventions. Ultimately, an international peacekeeping force probably will be needed to help restore order.
The Obama administration is, as always, reluctant to mount or even support such an effort. Yet doing so now is surely preferable to being forced, as in Iraq and Syria, to conduct another military intervention in the future.
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Editorial: Libya spirals downward as the West looks the other way
Fighters from the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia sit on pick up trucks mounted with a machine gun during clashes with forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government near the Wetia military air base, as they fight for control of the area some 90 miles west of the capital Tripoli on January 5, 2015. MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images
CAIRO - A Libyan affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed the abduction of 21 Coptic Christians and released pictures of the captives.
The claim and photos were posted Monday on jihadi forums used by ISIS supporters. The Egyptian workers were seized last month in the central Libyan city of Sirte.
"The soldiers of the Islamic State in the province of Tripoli hold captive 21 Christian crusaders," the photo caption read, using a the name the group uses for itself.
Abu Makar, an Egyptian priest from the workers' hometown of Samalout, in southern Egypt, confirmed that the pictures are of the captives. A Coptic activist, Magdi Malak, said that he met with families of the captives and that they confirmed the authenticity of the pictures.
Libya has descended into chaos more than 3 years after a U.S.-backed uprising toppled the country's longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, as various tribes, militias, political parties and religious groups battle for power.
The problem has been particularly acute in the country's east, where several Islamist groups are reported to have been battling for control.
African leaders urged Western countries to intervene in Libya at a security summit in Dakar last month.
French forces largely expelled al Qaeda-linked insurgents from northern Mali in 2013 and some fled to Libya.
Late last year, Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of the U.S. Africa command, warned that ISIS had begun setting up training camps in the country's east.
Bisheer Estefanos, a farmer from the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, said he recognised the faces of his brothers, Bishoy and Samuel, among the men. All we can do is pray to God for help, he said. Their mother is tired of crying.
Mina Thabet, a researcher with the Cairo-based Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, described the shock filtering through the families on Monday.
I cannot begin to tell you how devastated they were as they recognised their sons, he said. They have no idea where they are or what their fate will be.
A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed that 20 Egyptians had been abducted in two separate incidents in Libya.
On January 3rd, Christian activists in Egypt had reported thirteen of their countrymen kidnapped in the Libyan town of Sirte, and that seven others had been kidnapped a week earlier.
In late December, an Egyptian Coptic couple and their daughter were found dead in the town, well-known before the 2011 civil war which led to the current fragmentation of the country as the birthplace and stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi, the long-time dictator.
It is now in the hands of Islamist militias including Ansar al-Sharia, which the UN added to its terror list last month over links to al-Qaida and for running Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant training camps.
As the United Nations prepares the ground for Libyan peace talks this week, the oil-rich nation remains deeply divided, split between an internationally-recognised government in the far east and Islamists who control Tripoli in the west.
The head of Libya's UN-recognised government has pleaded for more help from the international community, warning that the country could become a dangerous haven for jihadists on Europe's doorstep.
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Few Options for Fixing Libya, a Major Jihadist Threat to West
Verging on full-blown civil war, Libya may pose an even greater threat to Europe than jihadists in Iraq and Syria, yet the international community has few to...
By: ExpressNewsChannel
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Few Options for Fixing Libya, a Major Jihadist Threat to West - Video