U.S.

Bombing in Libya Reveals Limits of Strategy Against

ISIS
CAIRO American warplanes bombed a seaside town in Libya early Friday aiming to kill a militant
commander linked to attacks on Western tourists. But the mission also highlighted the widening gap
between American military operations and diplomatic efforts to bring peace and stability to a
tumultuous region.
The airstrikes on a training camp in Sabratha, targeting a Tunisian militant associated with planning
two major attacks on Western tourists in Tunisia last year, did demonstrate the United States
growing concern over Libya as a new base for the Islamic State and its willingness to use air power
against militant commanders and infrastructure.
Yet every terrorist strike also underscores the limits of the American approach to the countries
where the Islamic State is strongest, as the focus on military action has not been matched by
diplomatic efforts to resolve the core political issues that allow jihadists to prosper.
In Libya, efforts to build a unity government have made little progress. In Iraq, there has been little
success in easing Sunni resentment. And in Syria, an announced cessation of hostilities has not
materialized.
Secretary of State John Kerry insists that there are political processes in place in each of those
countries, and that progress is possible. But he acknowledges that for different reasons all are quite
fragile.
In Syria, the United States military efforts have proved modestly successful in degrading the Islamic
State. A combination of American and allied airstrikes, as well as military support for fighters on the
ground, has caused the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to lose territory. On Friday, Americanbacked Kurdish-led forces seized the eastern Syrian city of Shadadi, important for its nearby oil and
gas fields.
But Friday was also the day that a cessation of hostilities announced by the United States, Russia
and more than a dozen other countries, was to take effect. Instead, a scheduled meeting of a ceasefire task force was canceled and violence continued across Syria.
The picture is similar in Iraq, where military support by a United States-led coalition has helped
Iraqi and Kurdish forces seize territory from the jihadists. But American pressure has failed to push
the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to reconcile with the countrys Sunnis in a way that might help
reunite the country and defeat the Islamic State.
And in Libya, the United States had thrown its weight behind a United Nations-led initiative to bring
the countrys warring factions into a unity government. That process has been plagued by rivalry
between Libyas myriad political and militarized factions, and in the meantime, Western alarm at the
dramatic expansion of Islamic State in Libya has grown.
American officials estimate that, with an influx of men from Iraq, Syria and Tunisia, the Islamic
States forces in the country have swelled to as many as 6,500 fighters, allowing the group to capture
a 150-mile stretch of coastline over the past year. It has mounted attacks on the oil facilities that
account for most of Libyas wealth.

The last thing in the world you want is a false caliphate with access to billions of dollars of oil
revenue, Mr. Kerry warned at a meeting of the 23-nation coalition against the Islamic State on Feb.
2 in Rome.
For weeks, American and allied Western officials have mulled a possible air campaign against the
Islamic State in Libya, particularly around its de facto headquarters in Surt. Libyan officials and
news media outlets have reported the presence of American, French, British and Italian special
forces units in the country in recent weeks, ostensibly on reconnaissance missions and to liaise with
local militias.
But American officials stressed that Fridays strike did not herald the start of such a campaign, and
instead was the continuation of targeted strikes that aim to prevent the Islamic State from using
Libya as a springboard for attacks in the region or across the Mediterranean Sea in Europe.
One strike last June targeted the Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, while another in November
killed Abu Nabil, also known as Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi who led the Islamic
States arm in Libya.
The Friday strike, on a seaside town 50 miles west of Tripoli, targeted Noureddine Chouchane, a
Tunisian militant. He had also helped arrange the arrival of Islamic State recruits into Libya, the
Pentagon said in a statement confirming the strikes. Mr. Chouchane, 35, was probably killed in the
attack on the compound, where up to 60 militants had been actively training for a terrorist
operation, the Pentagon said.
Mr. Chouchane was accused of helping to organize an attack on the National Bardo Museum in
Tunis that killed 22 people in March and another in June that killed 38 people at a beachfront resort
in Sousse. He is also believed to have helped funnel as many as 1,500 Islamic State fighters to Iraq
and Syria.
The Islamic State has continued to push across Libya, underscoring what diplomats say is the
importance of settling the multifaceted civil war that has given it space to expand.
Libyas political leaders are currently divided between two loose political alliances centered on rival
Parliaments in the capital, Tripoli, and the eastern city of Tobruk. But the United Nations effort to
form a unity government, led by the German diplomat Martin Kobler, has been stymied by the
factional differences based on town, tribe, personality or religious persuasion that helped set off
Libyas civil war in 2014 and have persistently dogged efforts to resolve it ever since.
An agreement to form a unity government, signed in December, has been loudly opposed by the
faction that controls Tripoli, which has refused to allow Mr. Koblers plane to even land in the capital
since early January. There are tensions over any future role for Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a commander
who dominates in the east.
For now at least, the United States seems set on continuing to attack targets of opportunity in Libya
while supporting the troubled process led by the United Nations. We will continue to take actions
where weve got a clear operation and a clear target in mind, President Obama told reporters on
Tuesday. At the same time, were working diligently with the United Nations to try to get a
government in place in Libya. And thats been a problem.
Still, the slow-moving political talks are in danger of being overtaken by the pace of Islamic State
expansion on the ground.

During an interview in Cairo this week Mr. Kobler, the United Nations envoy, pulled out maps that
contrasted the Islamic States relatively modest presence in Libya at the beginning of 2015 with its
explosive growth 12 months later.
This is something that can only flourish in a political and security vacuum, he said. Thats why
something must be done.
In Syria, civilians have seen few benefits from the diplomacy other than limited deliveries of
humanitarian aid.
Analysts warn that the United States cannot hope to defeat the Islamic State without addressing the
wider issues that have allowed the group to thrive.
It is clear that the priority in Washington now is taking whatever steps are convenient to tactically
weaken ISIL over the course of the next year, said Noah Bonsey, a Syria analyst with the
International Crisis Group.
The political process to end the war is a lower priority, he said, and has made much less progress.
If that political track doesnt go anywhere, it is pretty clear that there is no backup plan, he said.
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