Earlier in March, Rodriguez told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Libya is already a failed state. “This is going to take some time for them to, you know move this thing forward”. The decision to utilise airstrikes would depend on the government’s needs as well as on the worldwide community, he observed.
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He says it will be a challenge for the Islamic State group to become as big a threat as it is in Iraq and Syria because of local Libyan fighters.
Thomson ReutersLibyan soldiers manning a military outpost, stop a auto at a checkpoint in Wadi Bey, west of the city of Sirte, which is held by Islamic State militantsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Islamic State has doubled its fighters in Libya to between 4,000 and 6,000 in the last 12 to 18 months but militias in the North African nation have limited the hardline militants’ growth, the commander of USA forces in Africa said on Thursday.
The Islamic State, also known as Daesh, has been designated as a terrorist organisation and is outlawed in the United States, Russia and numerous other countries.
In Syria, the Pentagon is supporting a patchwork of local militias that have recovered less ground but making headway against the Islamic State in the northeast. Some tribes have confronted the Islamic State and helped contain the terror group’s growth.
While the U.S. has bombed ISIS in Libya in the past it has not yet extended its air campaign against the group in that country.
Since Fayez Serraj arrived in Tripoli last week as the nominal prime minister, he has received support from some key groups in Libya, including the force responsible for guarding the country’s oil infrastructure.
He needs all the support he can get. Fewer of the fighters are “homegrown” as they are in Iraq and Syria, he added, and the militants faced additional opposition from the Libyan population, which tended to oppose outside influences. “It’s a real gamble”. In February, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of Libya’s new unity government’s efforts to keep the terrorists at bay.
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“If there’s government formation, that gives us new opportunities”, Carter said earlier this year.
