Libya

Libya’s interim government has slammed US airstrikes on a suspected ISIS training camp saying that the unsanctioned bombardment was a grave violation of its sovereignty. US warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on an ISIS base in  in Sabratha western Libya on Friday, targeting a leader linked to last year’s beach massacre in Tunisia. It was reported that around 30 to 40 Islamic State recruits were killed as well as two Serbian embassy staff who had been abducted by ISIS.

Early last month, we outlined the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Libya, which was transformed into a lawless wasteland in the wake of NATO-backed efforts to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The story is hopelessly convoluted but generally speaking, there are two governments. One in Tripoli and one internationally recognized body operating out of Tobruk, where the House of Representatives remains in exile after efforts to form a unity government in the capital fell apart.

An MiG-23 jet which was being flown by forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognized government was the second to go down in the past week The fighter jet was shot down as it carried out air strikes on opposition positions in the coastal city of Benghazi. ISIS have claimed its fighters downed the plane, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US monitor of jihadist activity on the Internet. On Monday, another MiG-23 crashed near the eastern city of Derna after attacking ISIS positions.

Earlier this year, Seymour Hersh, America’s leading investigative journalist, published an intriguing article on U.S. policy towards the growing conflict in Syria and Iraq. “Military to Military,” which appeared in the London Review of Books, maintains that the Pentagon’s intelligence analysts have, since 2013, been advising against the White House policy of removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, arguing that it would create a power vacuum in the country that would inevitably be exploited by groups like ISIS.

On January 19, representatives from Libya’s rival factions negotiating in Tunis announced they had formed a unity government comprised of a new 32-member cabinet.

Yay.

Six days later, lawmakers for the country’s internationally-recognized Parliament in Tobruk rejected the proposal.

Damn.