The Pentagon is secretly building drone bases throughout North Africa to support the Obama administration’s ongoing war against the Islamic State in Libya, The Washington Post reports.
U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity justified the base expansion saying it closed a crucial “blind spot” for western intelligence agencies in Libya. The new secret bases are in Tunisia, and are not currently authorized by the Tunisian government to conduct lethal strikes, The Post report indicates. The U.S. carried out nearly 300 airstrikes on ISIS in Libya in months following August, with the majority originating as drone strikes launched from Italy.
U.S. officials were reportedly anxious to sign a memorandum of understanding on the drone program in early 2016 to lay the groundwork for an eventual U.S. military assault on the ISIS-held city of Sirte. Libya is home to the largest ISIS chapter outside of Iraq and Syria, and repeatedly plots attacks on nearby Italy.
When the U.S.-backed offensive began in August Pentagon Spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis assured reporters the mission would last “a finite period of time and a very finite mission … We don’t envision this as being something that’s going to be too long.” Davis’s colleagues took his statement further saying the operation would last “weeks, not months.”
The initial offensive on Sirte proved successful, but nearly 100 ISIS fighters remained holed up in the city in areas unreachable by airstrikes. ISIS is mounting a vigorous defense Oct. 15, killing 14 U.S.-backed militia fighters in a single day.
“It matters for the United States and other Western countries that an operation that was initially thought to last weeks could last months, and it’s unclear what happens after ISIS disappears from Sirte,” senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations Mattia Toaldo told The Washington Post.
ISIS proves resilient in exploiting security vacuums, which appear likely to continue in Libya. The U.S. and NATO intervened in Libya in 2011 to topple the Gaddafi regime, leading to a total breakdown of the Libyan state. Libya became engulfed in civil war and now contends with two rival governments, neither of which seem willing to capitulate.
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