The new Libya: various aspects

[AdamG]

Dual posting -

Sixty-four Islamic State fighters have been killed and dozens wounded in Egyptian-Libyan military airstrikes on Libya, announced the spokesperson of the Libyan military, reported Al-Ahram.

http://egyptianstreets.com/2015/02/1...s-in-24-years/

[SWJ Blog]

‘Confronting ISIS in Libya: The Case for an Expeditionary Counterinsurgency’

A SWJ article which includes a review of recent history regarding the civil war / insurgency, plus a few maps. A good read too.

[davidbfpo]

Dr Omar Ashour's latest paper for Brookings: 'Between ISIS and a failed state: The saga of Libyan Islamists' (15 pgs):http://t.co/zeHpp4EfON

The summary:

Libya’s diverse Islamist actors played a substantial role in the 2011 armed revolution against Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent collapse of Libya’s democratization process into armed conflict. The advances of ISIS in Libya and the breakdown of Brotherhood electoral activism in neighboring Egypt, however, present an ideological and recruitment challenge to Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi factions.

[davidbfpo]

Catching up, a three week old article from The Spectator, by a journalist who went there. With the title and sub-title:

Cameron’s talking to the wrong Libyan government. He should call my old driverThere are real reasons to worry about Libya Dawn – but also real reasons to try to work with them

Link:http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/...my-old-driver/

Near the end:

It’s not the first time the West has walked away from a land they supposedly liberated, leaving a mess, I pointed out. At some point, Libya will have to sort out its problems on its own.

[SWJ Blog]

IS Foothold in Libya Threatens Europe, West Africa

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[SWJ Blog]

Libya and the Failure to Learn From Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria

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[SWJ Blog]

Pentagon: U.S. Forces in Libya, Looking for ‘Worthy’ Partners

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[SWJ Blog]

The Libya Gamble Part 1: Hillary Clinton, "Smart Power" and a Dictator's Fall

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[SWJ Blog]

The Libya Gamble Part 2: A New Libya, With ‘Very Little Time Left’

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[SWJ Blog]

Analysts: Inaction Strengthens IS in Libya

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[SWJ Blog]

Another Western Intervention in Libya Looms

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[SWJ Blog]

History of Regionalism and Tribalism in the Current Political Struggle for Libya: Key Reflections and Recommendations

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[SWJ Blog]

Friend or Foe? Doubts Plague US Military in Libya Training

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[SWJ Blog]

Now is the Time to Stop the Spread of the Islamic State in Libya

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[Azor]

https://warisboring.com/a-new-civil-...cf0#.io8ubnwxy

Fresh fighting would pit the Libyan National Army against the Government of National Accord

by WOLFGANG PUSZTAI & ARNAUD DELALANDE

Beginning in December 2016, the Saraya Defend Benghazi — also known as Benghazi Defense Brigade — an Islamist militia group that formed in June 2016 to oppose Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, was involved in the attack on facilities in Libya’s Oil Crescent.

The LNA decisively repulsed the attacks. But the wider conflict is only deepening — and could spark a new civil war in Libya pitting the two major claimants to the country’s leadership. Haftar and his allies in Tobruk on one side. On the other, the Government of National Accord in Tripoli.
Resource constraints on both sides could head off further fighting — assuming the local allies of both Haftar and the GNA behave themselves.

The December fighting was fierce...

[CrowBat]

...and another one by Arnaud: Erik Prince’s Mercenaries Are Bombing#Libya

On Jan. 11, 2017, Intelligence Online — a professional journal covering the world’s intelligence services — revealed that the pilots of Air Tractor attack planes flying from Al Khadim air base in Libya are private contractors working for Erik Prince, the founder of the company formerly known as Blackwater.

War Is Boring’s own sources in Libya confirmed the assertion. Our sources said that the pilots flying the United Arab Emirates Air Force IOMAX AT-802 Air Tractors — converted crop-dusters — are mercenaries and aren’t Arabs. Most of the for-profit aviators are American, according to IOL.
...

[OUTLAW 09]

AFRICOM commander voices concern over Russian meddling in Libya:
http://trib.al/mjYc2WP
#

[AdamG]

Russia "appears to have deployed" special forces to an airbase in Egypt 60 miles from the border with Libya in the past few days, according to U.S., Egyptian, and diplomatic sources, per a Reuters report.
Last week the U.S. military commander who oversees U.S. operations in Africa, Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia is trying to once again "exert influence" in the country, which used to be its client state. Waldhauser said a good way to characterize what appears to be happening between Russia and Libya is how Russia has been trying to support Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Why it matters: Russia might be planning to prop up Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, which would not be in the best interests of the U.S., according to Waldhauser. That's because Haftar is in a deadlock with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

https://www.axios.com/russian-troops...314277229.html

[OUTLAW 09]

Peskov: Russian 'excessive' interference in Libyan affairs not possible or expedient

Q: What's excessive?'

A: I've said all I want to

[CrowBat]

How Emirati air power turned Haftar's Libyan oil ports disaster to victory

How could an army have lost an entire region in a few days - and then recovered it so quickly?

On 14 March, General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army launched a counterattack against the fighters of the Saraya Defend Benghazi and the Petroleum Facilities Guard coalition, which had managed to take most of the coastal cities near the oil terminals 10 days earlier.

This lightning counter-offensive has left observers skeptical. How could an army have lost an entire region in a few days - and then recovered it so quickly?

The reasons for the failure of Haftar to contain the offensive on the oil terminals in the first place were multiple. Unlike their first attempt in#December 2016, the SDB and PFG fighters managed to rally some militias from Misrata including the al-Marsa Brigade. That's the first reason.

Secondly, the SDB-PFG convoy coming from Zillah, a town in the Sahara Desert where the SDB were based, joined the fight quickly and attacked several locations, taking Haftar troops - which were already limited in number because they were fighting on other fronts, particularly Derna - by surprise. The UAE's Wing Loong drones, supporting Haftar's forces,#apparently failed to spot the oncoming convoy in the desert.
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