The US Helped Destroy Libya In 2011. Here’s What’s Happening There Now, With the Help of ISIS…

[Octoldit]

“We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late.”

That’s from Libya’s National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Muamar Gaddafi.

Source: The US Helped Destroy Libya In 2011. Here’s What’s Happening There Now, With the Help of ISIS...

 

[Syriusly]

“We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late.”

That’s from Libya’s National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Muamar Gaddafi.

Source: The US Helped Destroy Libya In 2011. Here’s What’s Happening There Now, With the Help of ISIS...

Hard for me to miss the terrorist supporting, American killing dictator of Libya.

We helped destroy both Libya and Iraq- just that only 4 Americans died in Libya- as opposed to thousands in Iraq.

The lesson?

Maybe we should stop trying to create new nations in the Middle East. (though Libya really isn't in the ME)

 

[Octoldit]

“We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late.”

That’s from Libya’s National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Muamar Gaddafi.

Source: The US Helped Destroy Libya In 2011. Here’s What’s Happening There Now, With the Help of ISIS...

Hard for me to miss the terrorist supporting, American killing dictator of Libya.

We helped destroy both Libya and Iraq- just that only 4 Americans died in Libya- as opposed to thousands in Iraq.

The lesson?

Maybe we should stop trying to create new nations in the Middle East. (though Libya really isn't in the ME)

"American killing dictator" is that what the same people who wired the twin towers and WTC building 7 with explosives told you? The same people who killed 3,000 innocent Americans in New York City is who you look too for your definition of a terrorist?

What about the people of Libya and Iraq are they terrorist too? The people of Libya had the highest standard of in living in Africa before being invaded by American made terrorist. How about the millions murdered in Iraq based on all the wicked lies. How about Ukraine and Syria they must be terrorist too, just because the real terrorist said so. Are you really that confused?

 

[Claudette]

Bush destabilized the region when he removed Saddam.

One would think the oh so smart douchebag in the WH would have taken that lesson to heart before the Libyan dictator was removed.

Guess the law professor isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

 

[waltky]

Jihadis high-tailin' it from Libyan militias...

IS Militants Retreat From Libya Bastion as Militias Advance
JUNE 9, 2016 — Islamic State militants were retreating Thursday from their main bastion in Libya, as militiamen allied to a U.N.-brokered government pushed into the central city of Sirte, officials said.

Some militants reportedly shaved off their beards to escape while the pro-government fighters, mostly from the western Libyan city of Misrata, pushed into the city center in their tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns. At a main roundabout, the militiamen dismantled the metal frame of what some Sirte residents had dubbed the "stage of horror" — a podium used by IS for public beheadings and extrajudicial killings during its reign of terror. Videos circulated on social media show triumphant militiamen flashing victory signs and chanting "Allahu-Akbar" or "God is Great" as they drive around Sirte.

The capture of Sirte capped a month-long offensive by the Libyan militiamen to take the IS stronghold — it was the only major IS-held city outside Syria and Iraq, and was seen as a possible fallback option for the capital of its self-styled caliphate. The IS extremists are currently struggling to fend off advances on a number of fronts, including in the Iraqi city of Fallujah and the northern Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Raqqa. In Libya, militiamen from the western city of Misrata have been the main fighting force for the U.N.-brokered unity government that was installed in Tripoli earlier this year. For nearly four weeks, the militiamen have been advancing from the west and south against IS. The extremist group dispatched suicide bombers against the militiamen, who lost dozens of fighters last month.

On Wednesday, the militias pushed deeper into Sirte, which lies in the central part of Libya's Mediterranean coastline. On Thursday, they reached the city's key Zafarana roundabout, where they dismantled the stage where Human Rights Watch says IS killed at least 49 people. Misrata-based media official Ahmed Hadiya said his forces found sinks full of shaved-off beards and long hair inside a Sirte school taken from IS, suggesting that the militants tried to get rid of their trademark looks before fleeing.

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[waltky]

The ISIS Capital in Libya Under Siege...

‘We Are All That Stands Between ISIS and Europe’
6.11.16 - After long delays, the UN-backed government in Libya is on the offensive in strategic Sirte while ISIS hides behind trapped civilians.

The weathered concrete of checkpoint 50 shimmered out of the endless beige desert south of Sirte, that strategic city on the coast that has become the most important Libyan stronghold of the so-called Islamic State. Abu Anas and his extended family, in a convoy of a 15 cars, pulled up to the roadblock slowly, nervously. The men, women and children, wedged uncomfortably among their worldly possessions, hold their breath. They’d survived for a year under the brutal ISIS reign by adhering to its myriad laws, and keeping out of trouble. Most of their neighbors left the city months ago, amid a fresh wave of executions and dwindling supplies.

Now forces loyal to the country’s nascent unity government were advancing into the jihadi stronghold from three sides, bringing with them war and destruction. The family decided to leave before it was too late. “Where are you going? Why are you leaving Sirte?” barked a masked ISIS fighter peering into the window of the first car in the convoy. Behind him, in the blistering heat, 10 militants clutching assault rifles guarded the concrete structure. It’s one of three identical gateways east, west and south of the city, built by toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi to glorify his beloved hometown. The jihadist didn’t bother listening to the reply. “Stay and defend yourselves, your city,” he ordered, waving the convoy away and sending it back to town. No car would pass there.

It’s been weeks now that residents of the mid-coastal city have been barred from leaving by the insurgents, who are panicking as their North African caliphate is being chipped away. Forces loyal to the United Nations-backed unity government in Tripoli have entered the city from the west and are closing in from the east and the south. Without civilians to use as shields, the militants know the town will become a free-fire zone. If Sirte can be taken from ISIS, the impact on migrant smuggling—which ISIS has made an industry—could be profound, and Europe would find itself at least a little bit safer. But for now, the main concern of innocent people in Sirte is survival. Abu Anas and his family got out, finally, by taking the dangerous cross-country desert smuggling routes, which wind through Libya’s vast empty quarter. Days later, from the safety of Tripoli, he told us his story.

According to Ahmed, another resident who is still inside, the insurgents have even sent back people in urgent need of medical care that is not available in the embattled city, “We’re staying put—all the roads are closed,” he told The Daily Beast via messages, as the mobile network was down. “We don’t know what ISIS is doing exactly, but they are fortifying the town. We’re all just waiting for the war to come.” As Abu Anas recalled, much the same thing had happened in the last days of the Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The people of Sirte were ordered to stay put. “Five years on and it’s happening all over again,” said Abu Anas. Sirte was the final battle in the NATO-backed uprising, and the scene of Gaddafi’s dramatic death in what had been a hopeful revolution. But by last year it had become a perfect target of ISIS domination. More than 2000 fighters are thought to be based in the city no. Foreign insurgents, mostly from Tunisia and Sub-Saharan Africa, account for more than 85 percent of the group, according to Sirte Member of Parliament Ziad Hadia. The country, strangled by fighting between fiefdoms of ex-rebels, has collapsed amid civil war.

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See also:

Report From the Front: ISIS Crumbling in Key City on Turkish Border
6.10.16 - It looks like Manbij will fall to Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by U.S. and French special forces in the near future. But their next target remains a question mark.

From this base in a nearby village, we could see an F-16 fighter jet flying above ISIS positions in the city of Manbij. After one week of combat, a U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters has almost completely encircled this ISIS stronghold in Syria next to the Turkish border. A female commander on the radio told fighters on the front lines to be careful about giving their positions. “Be accurate in giving me locations, otherwise many civilians would be killed, and we don’t want to kill innocent people,” she said, loud enough for the handful of journalists at this position to hear. The mixed Kurdish and Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are backed on the ground by U.S. and French special forces who are advising and coordinating with local fighters and calling in coalition airstrikes. But they are not in a rush to take the city. “From the north side, we allowed a road to remain open and we have passed the road between Aleppo and Manbij,” said Shervan Kobani, a Kurdish fighter. “We do this in order to avoid destruction of the city, in order for the civilians to escape, and to give the ISIS fighters an option to escape,” he told The Daily Beast.

Kobani said that the so-called Islamic State group is on its last legs in Manbij. “ISIS cannot resist us, and blow themselves up near civilians when we reach them. They are very weak now, and wear women’s clothes to escape.” Even accounting for battlefield hyperbole, it does appear ISIS is getting weaker, and often ISIS fighters kill themselves before giving up to SDF-fighters. Hassan Abu Ali, 34, from a Free Syrian Army (FSA) group working with the Kurds says the resistance of ISIS is now broken. “The first line of ISIS in Halula is broken and in Sheikh Hajji Hussein and Mustafa Hamada. Now it will be easy for us, because initially it was very difficult,” he said. “Now they realize they are besieged in Manbij and we give them three days to flee and within a few days we will be rid of them,” he said. “We allow the main road in the Ghandura village to be open, so they can flee. But maybe tomorrow we cut this also.” The Manbij Military Council set up by SDF forces to capture the city from ISIS said in a statement, “The presence of civilians in the city and our care about the safety of these families forces us to be patient.”

Col. Christopher Gaver, the spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, sounds less optimistic about jihadist retreat. “The SDF has met heavy resistance from Daesh [ISIS] at the onset of the operation and at points along the way. We assess that Daesh will fight hard to retain Manbij as it is the key terrain on the line of communication out of Raqqa,” the de facto ISIS capital in Syria, Garver told reporters on Wednesday. “Daesh has employed the tactics we have seen before as they defend and then cede territory, including the extensive use of IEDs to slow advancing forces and significantly damage the infrastructure they have lost,” he added.

Villagers seem to be very supportive of the SDF forces. “May God destroy them, thank God you got rid of them,” Um Farouq, 60, a local woman told local fighters, smiling. Other Arab civilians could be seen dancing victory dances, and hugging the SDF fighters. “We were waiting for the SDF to come hour by hour and minute by minute. They liberated us from ISIS and we thank them,” said Mustafa Mohammed al-Ahmad. Asked if local civilians might join ISIS because of the “collateral damage” from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, he said no. “The coalition haven’t killed civilians, they are accurate.” Some civilians say it’s too early to tell if the SDF is going to be a positive presence, even if they are happy to be rid of ISIS.

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