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Egypt Bombs ISIS Targets in Libya
The Egypt military launched air strikes (NYT)
on targets with suspected ties to Libya's ISIS branch on Monday after
the group released a video depicting the beheading of at least twelve
Coptic Christian Egyptians. The victims had been kidnapped last month in
Libya's coastal city of Surt. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
has called for a UN mandate (Al Arabiya) for international forces to intervene against the growing extremist presence in Libya. Separately, Egypt and France signed a $5.9 billion deal (France 24) for the first export sale of French Rafale combat jets.
Analysis
"The
two rival governments of Libya focused on combatting one another, each
supported by regional powers. Both preferred to largely ignore the
influx of foreign jihadists forming new alliances with local
extremists—and their unification under Islamic State's banner," argues Yaroslav Trofimov in the Wall Street Journal.
"Egypt
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have forcefully chosen one side.
Both governments view political Islam in general, and the Muslim
Brotherhood in particular, in exceptionally hostile terms,
and view Libya's Islamists as part of that regional ideological,
political, and military threat," writes Shashank Joshi in Al Jazeera.
"For ISIL leaders, Libya is a tempting prize,
the war offering the same chaos and dislocation found in Iraq and
Syria. Western leaders worry that Libya offers the one thing not
available in either Iraq or Syria—access to the coast. ISIL bases at
Derna, Sirte and Nawfilya are all close to the shore offering the chance
for units to set sail across the Mediterranean to attack Europe. ISIL
will have expected Egypt’s air strikes and may hope the bombing brings
further chaos to an already war-torn country, and with it fresh chances
to expand," writes John Pearson for the National. | 
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