Egypt bombs ISIS in Libya
A video appeared on the internet yesterday of some Coptic Christian Egyptians who were beheaded by Islamic State thugs in Libya. Egypt wasted no time in paying IS back. According to BBC, Egypt responded with airstrikes in the Libyan city of Derna with the coordination of the Libyan government;
The kidnapped Egyptian workers, all Coptic Christians, were seized in separate incidents in December and January from the coastal town of Sirte in eastern Libya, under the control of Islamist groups.
[…]
The video describes the Copts as “crusaders” and refers among other things to two women, wives of Coptic priests, whose alleged conversion to Islam triggered a sectarian dispute in Egypt in 2010.
From Fox News;
A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.
The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”
“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them,” it said.
[…]
Libya’s air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side and that they killed about 50 militants. Libya’s air force also announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an ISIS affiliate last year.
The Copts had gone to Libya for work since Egypt has fallen on economic hard times since their revolutions.
But, good for Egypt – they’re also battling IS militants in the Sinai, so this is just an extension of that battle. It’s about time that the regional governments stepped into the breech and started dealing with the Islamic State. It’s unfortunate that they waited this long, but late is better than never. The ultimate defeat of ISIS depends on the participation of the regional governments in this war.
Category: Terror War
“The ultimate defeat of ISIS depends on the participation of the regional governments in this war.”
Yep.
“It’s unfortunate that they waited this long, but late is better than never.” I believe that the more stable states in the ME/No Africa are seeing that ISIS is not morphing into even a superficially political force that can be dealt with in political terms. Our president still insists otherwise and is a laughingstock with his pie-in-the-sky effort to speak nice about these murdering bastards. Perhaps the next US president will get it and be the binding agent for those stable states that see ISIS as a threat to them. Hell, Vlad sees this and is sidling up to Egypt presently. This is not a US matter but it is a matter that affects the US. And no more blue-fingered bullshit. The tribes do not want or understand democracy and we can’t provide it to them. No, the next time–under the next president–we should be more than happy to provide the bombs, bullets, and intel, while the states directly affected spill blood.
I like it. Do more.
I didn’t see you. Do it again.
Readers take note. First the King of Jordan quickly sends his Air Force to avenge the murder of their pilot. Now the leader of Egypt quickly sends his Air Force to avenge the murder of their citizens. Yet the individual who is supposed to be the leader of the free world will not even utter the words Islamic Terrorists. Sorry Mr. President, referring to them as “poopie pants” won’t cut it. I am proud to be an American but damned ashamed of who the current occupant of the White House is.
OK, but you have to remember that whine back in the very beginning of this (lack of) administration, over the dustup between a black professor who got into a dustup with a cop when he couldn’t find the keys to his home. Remember that?
And the whine that followed? ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ along with the beer and peanuts tete-a-tete in the Rose Garden.
That set the tone for the next – what? six? – years, and it’s all been downhill from there.
That fool will never acknowledge that anyone can possibly be so mean – er, evil. He does not ‘get’ it, and never will.
Here is some cockpit video of the Egyptian airstrikes. There is no commentary on the videos.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31494141
This link goes to a BBC News article on Egypt’s view of IS.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31493399
Finally Muslim governments doing what they need to do to be taken seriously as part of the “world community” (I don’t really like that phrase but it seems to fit)
All of us who have served in the last 20 years have probably dealt with some great individuals of the Islamic faith. Hell I’ve met a few that I’d burn down the rest of the Middle East to protect (If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Rambo at the front gate of Camp Phoenix in Kabul you know why I think that) But for all the talk that some like to throw around about Islam being a religion of peace, we never seem to see them sticking up to the types that Chris Kyle was labeled a racist for calling savages. When major Muslim organizations and governments start standing up to thugs, savages and terrorists like ISIS, maybe someone will start believing the claim that Muslims are just like everyone else.
I served in A-stan 2005-06 doing ops out of Camp Phoenix, and HELL YEAH, ‘ol “Rambo” is one Man I would have NO quips or qualms about having at my side in any firefight, he risked his ass to protect ours countless times during that tour. Anyone that ever got to know him would say he has balls harder than depleted uranium!
There’s a sour taste to all of this. When 9/11 happened, the people in the ME danced in the f*cking streets. When it was the US and our European allies fighting jihadists in the area, the rest of the ME couldn’t be bothered. But when THEIR citizens are the ones who are getting whacked by jihadists, they’re all over it. It’s looking more and more like theatre to me. They don’t give a damn about anyone but their own, and we need to drop nukes and sterilize the whole area.
If that makes me a racist, so be it.
Somebody really needs to let the Golfer in Mom Jeans know that ISIS doesn’t agree with his non-religious view of ISIS warfare. Today comes a report that ISIS has taken 90 Assyrian Christians captive. That’s probably a coincidence, right, that ISIS grabbed Christians? So now we await word of their fate, as if we didn’t know what will become of them.The only thing missing is the pretense that the Nazis used. No extermination camps portrayed as work camps. For ISIS, it’s just round the Christians up and murder them.
This looks like another ‘poke the bear’ episode. These people are either dead already or going to die.
The video will be released ASAP, and the ISers will wait for another air strike or bombing run by whoever starts first.
The sensationalism of these gruesome events is not having the effect that I think they want, which is all-out war, if I understand a German reporter’s take on them correctly. They even talk of invading Italy to ‘fight Rome’ and warfare with horses and swords.
The threats against US shopping malls may or may not have substance, but it’s a good reason to avoid indoor shopping malls.
These things they do appear more and more to be aimed at provoking a real war. They should be careful what they wish for.