As Libyan militia groups close in on Islamic State fighters in Sirte, the group’s African stronghold, the United States must do more to help finish the job, the co-founder of a Libyan-American advocacy group said.
On a two-day Washington visit last week, Emadeddin Zahri Muntasser, an entrepreneur and founding board member of the Libyan American Public Affairs Council, said the U.S. must do more to aid in Libya’s fight against the Islamic State or risk missing the “incredible opportunity” to defeat the terrorist group in Libya.
“It is Libya’s fight, and they are doing it for Libyans, but they’re really doing it on behalf of the whole world,” Mr. Muntasser told The Washington Times. “When else can we have a chance to defeat ISIL without putting American troops on the ground? I don’t want to say it’s ‘the cheapest fight’ the United States can do — but it is.”
Libyan militia groups, organized under the auspices of the U.N.-backed unity government, have made surprising progress in the assault on Sirte launched last month. In just three weeks, the attack force has confined the extremists to the city center — just a few residential blocks. Mr. Muntasser said this immediate success was unexpected and that a victory could be just a few weeks away.
But Mr. Muntasser said that opportunity could disappear without U.S. and outside support. He wants President Obama and key lawmakers to send a clear message of support to the Libyans fighting in Sirte, he said, in addition to humanitarian aid.
“No matter how strong the morale is, if you see your fellow soldier injured and he cannot be treated, it will affect you. I don’t care how strong, how young, how motivated you are — it will have an effect,” Mr. Muntasser said.
Mr. Muntasser acknowledged the various “red flags” associated with providing aid to Libyans, including the hotly debated decision by the Obama administration to back the campaign to oust longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and the ensuing political vacuum created with Gadhafi’s death.
Mr. Obama in April called the failure to plan for the post-Gadhafi situation in Libya the “worst mistake” of his presidency and recently said the North African nation is a “mess.”
But Mr. Muntasser said Libyan forces do not need much to complete the mission and that a few U.S. planeloads of basic medicinal supplies would make a big difference.
“It’s not even a few million dollars, for God’s sake,” he said. “We don’t want to come to Washington, D.C., at this time, under these circumstances, and hear about budget and money and Congress and the administration. That is not fair. America can do better.”
For many lawmakers, however, it’s not about the money. U.S. officials and their allies have been cautious to send aid, worried that such help could upset the balance among the rival factions uneasily sharing power in Tripoli. The U.S. military has primarily focused on pushing back the Islamic State in its homeland in Iraq and Syria.
Mr. Muntasser said Libyans remain grateful for the U.S. assistance five years ago and that Washington should devote more attention to the fate of his country.
“The threat to some town in the Midwest may start far, far away,” Mr. Muntasser said, after calling Sirte the Islamic State’s “springboard” into Europe and the United States.
Libyan government militias last week were said to be in control of the harbor in Sirte — Gadhafi’s hometown — and were battling Islamic State fighters in residential areas near the center of the city.
With a contingent at one point believed to include some 6,000 fighters this year, Sirte ranked as the Islamic State’s biggest outpost outside of Syria and Iraq.
• Jessie Fox can be reached at jfox@washingtontimes.com.
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