Western officials are scrambling to get authorisation for Libya airstrikes in the coming days before Islamic State captures the strategically important town of Ajdabiya, gateway to the country’s oil wealth.
Fierce fighting is raging in the town, which sits on a rocky plateau dominating the eastern oil ports. Capture will give Isis command of the Sirte basin, home to Libya’s largest collection of oilfields.
British, American and French jets are on standby for strikes from bases across the Mediterranean, with drones and reconnaissance planes already in the air. US special forces are in the Libyan desert, with one unit inadvertently photographedat the western Wattiya airbase last week.
But strikes will not be launched until Libya issues a formal invitation, which military planners hope will be made soon, after the United Nations last week unveiled what it hopes will be a new unified government for the chaotic country.
Western officials fear that, without Libya strikes, success in the intensified bombing of Isis in Iraq and Syria will be undone as it builds strength in north Africa. Isis is already reconfiguring globally, with volunteers from Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen moving to Libya, both by ship and along the “pipeline”, a smuggling network leading over the country’s long unguarded desert border.
The strategy of hitting Isis in Syria, Iraq and Libya at the same time was laid out on Friday night by Barack Obama, who said an American-led coalition would defeat Isis by “systematically squeezing them”.
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