Egypt calls for United Nations-backed military operation in Libya

posted on: Feb 18, 2015

Egypt called Tuesday for a U.N.-backed military operation in Libya after a group of Egyptian Christians were beheaded there, in a sign of the growing willingness of governments in the Middle East to intervene in neighboring states awash in violence.

The appeal came from Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in an interview with a French radio station. Sissi said there was “no other choice” but to act in Libya, whose turmoil he called “a threat to international peace and security.” He spoke a day after Egyptian warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Libya to avenge the group’s grisly murder of the 21 Christians.

Earlier this month, Jordan carried out a flurry of airstrikes in Syria after the Islamic State burned to death a captured Jordanian pilot. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also participated in strikes on the Islamic State, which declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq last summer.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com