BloombergBusiness Reports: Libya Issues `Cry for Help' as Islamic State Attacks Oil Tanks

[easyt65]

Wow, what a dilema for Obama....

He supplied, armed, and trained both Al Qaeida that controls Libya as well as ISIS. He took the country to war on his own to help Al Qaeida (perpetrators of both 9/11/01 & 9/11/12 attacks) take over Libya. He allowed ISIS to go into Iraq un-opposed to take over much of the country our troops had liberated at great cost....

...who to help now ...hmmm, who to help now...?!

 

[waltky]

Deadliest Bombing in Libya Since Fall of Gadhafi...

Libya Suffers Deadliest Bombing Since Fall of Gadhafi
January 07, 2016 — A suicide truck bomb in Libya killed at least 60 police recruits Thursday at a college close to the city of Misrata. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest bombing in Libya since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The attack came as the Islamic State terror group continued its assault on oil facilities in Libya's east. About 400 mostly young police recruits had gathered at a training college in the town of Zliten when the suicide attacker struck. A police officer said the attacker drove through the gate very fast in a large truck and then the bomb exploded. Local residents helped ferry victims to hospitals in nearby Misrata. Such attacks have become more frequent in recent months.

Islamic State militants claimed Thursday to have captured the strategic coastal town of Bin Jawad. But risk analyst Riccardo Fabiani of the Eurasia Group argued that the group’s expansion in Libya had been limited. “The problem for IS in Libya is that they cannot really exploit religious sectarian divisions as they have in Iraq and in Syria," Fabiani said. "And most importantly, the level of support that they enjoy with the overall population in Libya is quite limited.”

An injured man receives treatment inside a hospital in Misurata, Libya, after a truck bomb exploded at a police training center in the town of Zliten​

In recent days IS militants have launched attacks on major oil facilities in Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, resulting in huge fires. “Their strategy here is to attack these facilities, damage them," Fabiani said. "Why they are doing this right now is quite clear, because there is a peace deal, there is a national unity government and this is the time to basically sabotage and undermine what has been achieved so far.”

Libya’s rival administrations — one based in Tripoli and backed by Islamist groups, and the other in Tobruk, which is the internationally recognized government — signed a U.N.-negotiated power-sharing deal last month, but they have yet to form a unity government. The U.N. envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, is calling for Libyans to back the deal and unite against terrorism.

Libya Suffers Deadliest Bombing Since Fall of Gadhafi

 

[Rustic]

Wow, what a dilema for Obama....

He supplied, armed, and trained both Al Qaeida that controls Libya as well as ISIS. He took the country to war on his own to help Al Qaeida (perpetrators of both 9/11/01 & 9/11/12 attacks) take over Libya. He allowed ISIS to go into Iraq un-opposed to take over much of the country our troops had liberated at great cost....

...who to help now ...hmmm, who to help now...?!

Obama's dumbass ideas...

 

[waltky]

ISIS attacks Libyan oil terminals...

Two fires extinguished at Libyan oil terminals, five still burning
Thu Jan 7, 2016 - Firefighters have extinguished two fires at oil storage tanks at Libya's Ras Lanuf terminal, but blazes continue at five tanks in the nearby port of Es Sider after attacks this week by Islamic State militants, a Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) spokesman said on Thursday.

Two tanks were hit by shelling this week and the fires spread later. Spokesman Ali al-Hassi said the PFG remained in control of the area and that there were no clashes on Thursday. The fighting, which began on Monday with a car bombing against a guards' outpost, has left 11 guards dead and more than 40 wounded, he said.

Separately, nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday when a truck bomb exploded at a police training centre in the town of Zliten, east of Tripoli, local officials and hospital sources said. Both Es Sider and Ras Lanuf have been closed since December 2014. They lie between the city of Sirte, which is controlled by Islamic State, and the eastern city of Benghazi.

An oil official based in eastern Libya estimated that the tanks hold up to 460,000 barrels each. Libya is split between political factions and armed groups competing for power and for the country's oil wealth, nearly five years after the revolt that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The OPEC member state's oil output has plunged to less than one quarter of a 2011 high of 1.6 million barrels per day.

UPDATE 1-Two fires extinguished at Libyan oil terminals, five still burning

 

[Claudette]

Well he did remove Quadafi which destabilized the region.

One would think he learned the same lesson Bush learned when he took out Saddam.

Guess not.

 

[waltky]

Libya to be the Next Front in War Against ISIS?...

Libya May Become the Next Front in War Against the Islamic State
Jan 28, 2016 | The United States is considering "decisive" military action against Islamic State fighters entrenched in Libya, but delivering a fatal blow to the militant group will likely require more than airstrikes, experts say.

And many questions remain to be answered about any U.S. involvement in a country that has been embroiled in factional fighting since U.S.-led airstrikes four years ago helped to topple the regime of Moammar Gadhafi, who was captured and slain by rebels. "What is the strategy?" asked Shashank Joshi, a security analyst with the Royal United Services Institute in London. "One-off degradation? Is there a ground component? Who provides the forces? "There are lots of unanswered questions."

Speaking recently, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not offer details about the plan now under review, but he hinted at potential escalation in Libya that would likely involve an intensification of surveillance of Islamic State fighters and airstrikes like those conducted by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, where the group has its roots. "It's fair to say that we're looking to take decisive military action against ISIL in conjunction with the political process" in Libya, Dunford told a group of traveling reporters last week, using an abbreviation for the radical group. "The president has made clear that we have the authority to use military force."

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn​

The U.S, along with key allies, is now examining military plans that would aim to strike hard against Islamic State militants in Libya, who have taken advantage of the lawlessness to gain a foothold there. The fear is that the Islamic State can exploit the chaos in Libya to build another sanctuary - this time in an oil-rich country awash in weaponry that borders Western-backed Egypt and Tunisia - that could serve as a springboard to Europe only 300 miles across the Mediterranean to the north. A decision on the plan, which involves allies such as France, the United Kingdom and Italy, is "weeks" rather than "hours" away, but the goal is to "put a fire wall" between the Islamic State fighters in Libya and other extremist groups in Africa, Dunford told The New York Times.

But in Libya, the U.S. and its allies will encounter a fighting environment that is every bit as complicated as Iraq and Syria — if not more so, experts say. Shifting alliances among extremist groups and the many militias that hold battle space in Libya will make decisive action difficult, particularly with a reliance on airstrikes. "Libya is a mess," said Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer with the Soufan Group, a prominent global security firm. "The militias and extremist groups are aligned and at odds at different times. There's so many of them. It's like Syria, but with a more local established militia flair. And there is no clear line of demarcation between them."

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See also:

Pentagon Loosens Rules of Engagement Against ISIS in Afghanistan
Jan 22, 2016 | The Obama administration has loosened the rules of engagement for U.S. forces striking the Islamic State and affiliated groups in Afghanistan, allowing them to target militants just for being associated with the terror network, a senior defense official confirmed to Fox News.

The new authorization now puts ISIS in the same category as al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Previously, the militants could be targeted only if they showed what's known as hostile intent. "Now," a U.S. official told Fox News, "we can kill ISIS in Afghanistan just for wearing the T-shirt or waving their flag."

The Wall Street Journal first reported the change. The development comes after the State Department designated the affiliate "ISIL-K," or Khorasan, as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this month.

Despite the new authorization allowing the military to more easily target ISIS supporters, the U.S. has been going after the militants in Afghanistan for months. The U.S. military has conducted dozens of drone operations against ISIS affiliates in eastern Afghanistan beginning this summer in order to protect Afghan, U.S. and foreign forces.

Pentagon Loosens Rules of Engagement Against ISIS in Afghanistan | Military.com

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Concerns about Fatigue Mount as Iraqi Troops Prepare to Retake Mosul
Jan 26, 2016 | Elite Iraqi troops have taken the lead wherever the country's military forces have had success on the battlefield, and they are expected to do the same in the long-delayed campaign to wrest Mosul back from the Islamic State.

The so-called Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) troops "are the best light infantry the Iraqis have," said Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of the CTS troops. But, the senator added, they risk being worn out by overuse. The elite forces recently led the way in taking back Ramadi from militants affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS and earlier spearheaded the offensive to recapture Tikrit when conventional Iraqi troops and Shia militias backed by Iran failed. They held on at the Baiji oil refinery when others fled and recently routed ISIS in fighting near Haditha in western Anbar province, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. "They are beginning to prepare for other efforts to retake territory" from ISIS, said Reed, who recently returned from Iraq and meetings with U.S. and Iraqi commanders. "One of the major objectives is Mosul," he said, but "that's probably months and months away" in the campaign against ISIS.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said the U.S. was looking at ways to speed up the timeline for commencing operations in Mosul. In Paris on Sunday, Dunford told reporters traveling with him that he will soon make recommendations to President Barack Obama on the possible repositioning of U.S. troops in northern Iraq to aid an assault on Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. "We're about winning" and "we want to have the Iraqis win," he said.

The repositioning would involve placing U.S. advisors closer to Mosul than the Joint Operations Center in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish autonomous region, according to a Defense Department news release. "It is fair to say we will have positions -- we already do (in Irbil) -- up in the north that will facilitate supporting Iraqi security forces as they isolate Mosul," Dunford said after meetings with Gen. Pierre de Villiers, chief of France's defense staff.

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