African securityEgypt’s military involvement in the anti-Islamist campaign in Libya deepens
Two days ago, on Wednesday, Egypt has escalated its involvement in the battle against Libyan Islamists, as Egyptian warplanes conducted a series of attacks on Islamist militias’ positions in the eastern city of Benghazi. In late August, Egyptian and UAE warplanes attacked Islamist positions in and around Tripoli. Egypt’s growing direct military involvement in Libya has turned that country into yet another theater of a proxy war for broader regional battles, with Qatar and Turkey supporting the extremist Islamist militias while Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates backing the militias’ opponents. The growing Egyptian involvement is an indication that after two years of introspection and confusion, the moderate forces in the Arab world have begun to assert themselves in an effort to gain a measure of control over post-Arab Spring developments in the region.
Analysts noted that the disintegration of Libya, and the fact that Islamist militias could exploit the power vacuum to increase their sway over large swaths of the country, could well lead to a decision by Egypt to take matters into its own hands and use its considerable military capabilities to weaken the Islamist militias in Libya.
In early August, Amr Moussa, Egypt’s former foreign minister and former secretary-general of the Arab League, said Egypt should consider the possibility of a military response to the growing unrest in neighboring Libya, as this unrest now threatened Egypt’s national security. Moussa’s prominence, and his closeness to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, led to speculations that an Egyptian offensive in Libya was on the table.
Moussa’s statement came against a backdrop of growing Egyptian fears that factional fighting in Libya, which has forced most Western diplomats to flee the country, could spill over the border. In July, a Libyan Islamist militia infiltrated Egypt and killed twenty-one Egyptian soldiers in a military base near the border with Libya.
Two weeks after Moussa’s speech, on 21 and 23 August, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined forces to conduct a series of airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya (see “Egypt, UAE strike Islamists’ targets in Libya,” HSNW, 26 August 2014).
Two days ago, on Wednesday, Egypt has escalated its involvement in the battle against Libyan Islamists, as Egyptian warplanes conducted a series of attacks on Islamist militias’ positions in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Egyptian officials said the air strikes were part of an Egyptian-led campaign against Libyan Islamists. They added that the campaign against the militias will eventually involve Libyan ground troops being trained by Egyptian forces.
ABC New quotes the officials to say that the operation was requested by the internationally recognized Libyan administration based in the eastern city of Tobruk. That elected administration escaped the capital, Tripoli, when the city was taken over by Islamists in late August.
“This is a battle for Egypt not Libya,” one of the senior officials said. “Egypt was the first country in the region to warn against terrorism and it is also the first to fight it.”
