The Pentagon is being unusually quiet about an affiliate of the Islamic State’s takeover of an air base in Libya’s third largest city. The move is a potential indication of the organizational, authority and funding challenges it faces for this expanding fight.
The seizure of al-Qardabiya air base on Friday came after hundreds of militants captured Sirte, a city on the Mediterranean Sea about 350 miles west of Benghazi that surrounds the air base.
The Islamic State group kicked out the militia occupants, the Libyan Shield, and now claim the area including a key highway all the way to Ajdabiya as a caliphate, according to a journalist working from Benghazi who did not want to be identified. Ajdabiya is a coastal city along the route that connects Sirte to Benghazi.
Sirte was Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown, and one of the last holdouts during the 2011 uprising. None of the details regarding Sirte’s fall came from the Pentagon, which has said only that it is “monitoring the reports” on the ISIS-affiliate’s attacks on the area.
Unlike the majority of the other U.S. and coalition operations against the Islamic State, the attacks in Libya fall under U.S. Africa Command’s responsibility to respond; it is not part of U.S. Central Command’s responsibility.
And while the Islamic State’s desire to expand into Africa is well-known, the U.S. mission to counter ISIS, the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, includes no staff from Africa Command.
As a whole, AFRICOM has been anemically resourced by Congress and the White House since its creation in 2007. Only the high-profile assassination of U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, prompted the congressional dialogue necessary to start to fund a limited number of dedicated air and surveillance assets to the European-based command.
“As you know, we are fighting [the Islamic State] on several fronts and on several lines of effort,” said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren. “Our combat activities are focused in Iraq and Syria, but other lines of effort, to include choking off their ability to fund themselves and working with other partners to be able to build their capacity, is how we have to go after [the Islamic State] in other areas.”
In addition, the Pentagon has maintained that its direct operations against the Islamic State are limited to Iraq and Syria, barring authorization or direction to go beyond that. But a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force that President Obama submitted to Congress in February has languished without approval. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has told Congress that the new authorization would allow military action against Islamic State affiliates beyond Iraq and Syria. His critics have countered that no new authorization is needed to expand these operations.
And now Libya is “on the verge of economic and financial collapse,” and is deeply vulnerable to takeover by the Islamic State, said Bernardino Leon, special representative for the United Nations secretary-general for Libya .
“Libya … is facing a huge security threat, I would say more important today, because of Daesh threat,” said Leon, using the derogatory name for the Islamic State. He was speaking at a U.N. meeting on the state of Libya in Brussels Thursday. “Daesh is trying to build strong bases in Libya.”
The U.N. mission is largely evacuated from the country and makes only limited visits to Libya. During the last visit in October, staff was targeted by a double car bombing while trying to meet with the contested Libyan prime minister.
In Thursday’s takeover of the air base and surrounding area, the Islamic State affiliates took over the al-Qardabiya air base after a militia that had been protecting the asset withdrew, according to the Associated Press. A spokesman for the militia told the AP his forces departed after a call for reinforcements to Libya’s nonfunctional government were not answered.
The rise of the Islamic State in Libya is not a surprise to Africa Command, nor are the potential consequences if it gains beyond the “foothold” it has there, based on the Pentagon’s assessment.
In March, Africa Command chief Gen. David Rodriguez warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that if Islamic State threats in Libya were “left unchecked,” they would have the “highest potential … to increase risks to U.S. and European strategic interests.”
On Friday, the Pentagon would not discuss the state of affairs in Libya, except to note that it does not discuss future operations.
The only operations against the Islamic State and other violent extremist organizations in Libya have been primarily countered by building the capacity of various friendly militaries in each part of the continent.
