In an effort to bolster a weak and largely impotent U.N.-backed government in Libya, the United States has launched a bombing campaign against ISIS fighters in the city of Sirte. After having destroyed Libya and rendered what was once the country with the highest living standards in Africa to a desert of chaos and barbarism, the United States is now once again bombing the embattled nation. This time, however, the bombing is under the guise of “defeating ISIS” so that the limp GNA (Government of National Accord) can establish control over the country and, obviously, so that it might be able to translate and enforce the decisions made by the West into real results inside Libya.
Unlike in Syria, where U.S. bombing strikes are carried out mainly against Syrian military positions, civilians, or simply wasted in the desert (although sometimes ISIS targets are indeed bombed in order to encourage and force the fighters into moving from or ceding territory – terrorist herding), the bombing in Libya appears to actually be directed at ISIS targets. This is because the anti-imperialist figure of Ghaddafi is now gone and, in his place, is a puppet government more amenable to Western dictates. Thus, there is no more need, at least for now, of Islamic radicals to be used as a proxy force against the Libyan government.
Thus, after a request from the GNA, the United States began bombing targets in Sirte on Monday.
Prime Minister Fayez Seraj said on state TV that “The first air strikes were carried out at specific locations in Sirte today causing severe losses to enemy ranks.” Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook stated that the airstrikes did not have “an end point” at this time, suggesting the possibility that U.S. involvement will become even greater as time progresses as well as the potential for a much longer duration of operations.
Seraj stated that the Presidential Council of the GNA has “activated” its involvement in the “international coalition against the Islamic State” and “request[ed] the United States to carry out targeted air strikes on Daesh (Islamic State).”
Sirte, Ghaddaffi’s home town, is considered to be a strategically significant area of operation outside of Iraq and Syria as the city sits along the Meditteranean coast. ISIS fighters are now relegated to a “few square kilometers” of the city center where they hold a few important sites.
The Monday strikes were the third round of airstrikes by the United States inside Libya after the original destruction of Libya. In February, the U.S. launched strikes against Sabratha.
The air campaign apparently also involves the deployment of a small number of Special Forces squads who are to be rotated in and out of Libya as well as drone surveillance.
According to a Reuters report,
Although it does not include the use of ground troops beyond small special forces squads rotating in and out of Libya and drones collecting intelligence, the air campaign opens a new front in the war against IS and what American officials consider its most dangerous component outside Syria and Iraq. [emphasis added]
. . . . .Small teams of Western countries’ special forces have been on the ground in eastern and western Libya for months. Last month France said three of its soldiers had been killed south of the eastern city of Benghazi, where they had been conducting intelligence operations. [emphasis added]
Deployment of U.S. Special Forces to Libya was known in May, 2016.
While the bombing mission in Libya is without a doubt an escalation in the U.S. involvement in Libya, it is also not unexpected as both the United States and the French move toward an increase their presence in the country, strengthening the puppet GNA government and solidifying a return to Western imperialism in Africa.
Brandon Turbeville is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 andvolume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 650 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
