US struggles to build anti-IS strategy in Libya

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is struggling to find the right mix of military and diplomatic moves to stop the Islamic State in Libya, where the extremist group has taken advantage of the political chaos in the country to gain a foothold with worrying implications for the U.S. and Europe – particularly Italy, just 300 miles away.

U.S. officials have publicly warned of the risks of Libya becoming the next Syria, where the Islamic State flourished amid civil war and spread into Iraq.

No large-scale U.S. military action is contemplated in Libya, senior administration officials said, but President Barack Obama last week directed his national security team to bolster counterterrorism efforts there while also pursuing diplomatic possibilities for solving Libya’s political crisis and forming a government of national unity. Though the Islamic State has emerged in other places, including Afghanistan, Libya is seen as its key focus outside of Syria and Iraq.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said military options under consideration include raids and advisory missions by U.S. special operations forces and narrowly targeted airstrikes such as the November hit on a command center near the port city of Darnah that killed Abu Nabil, a longtime al-Qaida operative believed by U.S. officials to have been the senior Islamic State leader in Libya.

For Obama, the growth of the Islamic State in Libya is the result, in part, of his decision in 2011 to join a European-led air campaign to topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi.