In the past few days, two columnists for the Egyptian daily Al-Watandaily have called for Egypt to launch a preemptive offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya, warning that ISIS's hold in Libya was likely to grow due to the military pressures on the organization in Syria and Iraq. They wrote that in light of the slow pace of the Libyan national unity talks, and European inaction, Egypt ought to take the initiative, and not wait until ISIS starts attacking on Egyptian soil.
It should be noted that the Fatwa Monitoring Observatory – a newly established branch of the Dar Al-Ifta', Egypt's supreme fatwa-issuing body, which is tasked with countering religious extremism – has recently issued a report warning of the influx of foreign ISIS fighters to the city of Sirte in Libya. The report likewise warned of ISIS expansion in Libya and its use as a base for attacks on neighboring countries.
The following are excerpts from the columns in Al-Watan:
In his December 9, 2015 column, Muhammad Mukarram Ahmad wrote: "Despite the increasing pressures in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, in an advance move, has already turned Libya into a support base from which to launch its terrorist crimes against Egypt in particular, and against the security of the North African countries – Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
"[Libya has also become] a center for the planning of joint operations with Boko Haram in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Mali, and a strategic launching point that allows it to threaten the security of the Mediterranean and of southern Europe… [It is also] a bridge above the Mediterranean that allows its fighters to move between the previous battlefield in Iraq and Syria and its backyard Libya… In addition, ISIS now believes that Libya is the best alternative seat for the caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi if the military pressures on Raqqa in Syria were to intensify and it became necessary to transfer the Caliph to a new and more secure capital.
"ISIS in Libya has [both] high-level logistic capabilities and an infrastructure that is becoming stronger and broader, allowing it to carry out its Libyan plan now that it has achieved full control over Sirte… and now that ISIS has strengthened its presence in Derna, 70 miles from the Egyptian border. At present it is trying to take control of the strategic city of Ajdabiya, which is on the central Libyan coast and connects eastern and western Libya. It is close to the most important and richest Libyan oilfields, and likewise Ajdabiya is closest and allows best access to ports for exporting Libyan oil…
"In addition to these logistic capabilities, ISIS controls dozens of camps, and has turned them into training centers for its fighters. It also controls, in the far west, the city of Sabrata, some 60 miles from the Tunisian border; it was from there that the attacks on Sousse [in Tunisia] were launched, in which it killed 48 tourists, 30 of them British. [Sabrata] was also the launching point for the attack on the Bardo Museum in the Tunisian capital, and the latest attack, against a bus carrying officers and soldiers of the Tunisian presidential guard, killing 12. But Sirte remains the biggest prize in ISIS's possession – unless, God forbid, it succeeds in conquering Ajdabiya…
"The Europeans Have Not Lifted A Finger, Apart From Some Limited Aerial Bombardments… That Had Little Effect"
"Despite the recent U.N. report drawing the attention of the international community to the danger and to ISIS's plans to conquer Libya, as well as to the increasing possibility that its fighters and leaders will depart Iraq and Syria for Libya under the pressure of the military actions there… and [despite] the warning bells sounded by Egypt from time to time to draw the attention of the international community, and especially the European countries, to the danger of what is happening in Libya… the European countries are extremely cool vis-à-vis the Libyan crisis. This is even though it directly threatens the security of the Mediterranean and of Europe…"
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http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8901.htm