Here We Go Again: Western Powers Preparing for New Invasion of Libya?
SputnikNews.com
12.01.2016
Due to substantial human and financial losses inflicted on Daesh (ISIL/Islamic State) by the Russo-Syrian advance and Western airstrikes, Islamists are fleeing to oil rich Libya. Will 2016 bring a new NATO-led military intervention to the North African state?
A report released by the United Nations in early December 2015 warned about Daesh beefing up its military presence in Libya; indeed, the northern African state is strategically important to Islamists due to its geographical location at the crossroads between the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
The report cited Abu al-Mughirah Al Qahtani, the so-called “delegate leader” of Daesh’s Libyan Wilayat, who said that “Libya has a great importance because it is in Africa and south of Europe. It also contains a well of resources that cannot dry. […] It is also a gate to the African desert stretching to a number of African countries.”
“Daesh in Libya” was formed by Libyan returnees from Syria in spring of 2014 under the banner of the Islamic Youth Shura Council (IYSC) in Derna. The organization vowed alliance to Daesh in October 2014 and declared eastern Libya to be Daesh’s Wilayat Barqa (the Cyrenaica Province).
“In 2014, ISIL announced three provinces in Libya, namely, Wilayat Tripolitania (including Tripoli and Sirte), Wilayat Barqa (Cyrenaica, including Derna and Benghazi) and Wilayat Fezzan (south),” according to the UN analysts.
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