Libya Update

ꕤ Article SOURCE French http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/olivier-d-auzon/libye-intervention-militaire-mais-delicate_b_8884224.html English https://archive.is/q5Hc1 Google Translated French to English Olivier d'Auzon Writer, lawyer and consultant to the World Bank, author of the Book "The Grand Chessboard Putin" SUMMARY Since 2014, France Defence Min. Jean-Yves Le Drian has continued to push for air strikes & special ops in Libya Aims could be: 1) airstrikes 2) special ops - from French base Madama in northern Niger 3) deployment of troops French have already conducted special ops in Libya 2011 / French & British have been stationed Nafusa Mountains, Libya Article states:  most wars (even if limited to air ops) -->  are conducted with support of special forces on the ground. eg.  Kosovo reps of DGSE - French intel + SOC (Special Ops Command) guided the planes of NATO, pointing to shoot targets. Libya Egyptian + Mali, Niger, Senegal & Chad = argue for military intervention -->  Algeria, Sudan & Tunisia:  oppose. Algeria behind the scenes helps: Libyan Muslim Brotherhood + Salafist parties (as buffer to jihadist groups & extremists) Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir reportedly also hostile to foreign intervention & advocates chatting with militants. LOL ... Sudan is hedging its bets: Recognised Tobruk hiding govt. but delivered helicopters, men & arms to Misrata coalition. Egypt & UAE want military intervention. Bombed positions of Islamist militias in Tripoli. Support Gen. Haftar /Tobruk Egypt & UAE don't want Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Libya. This pisses off:  Qatar, Turkey & Algeria, who apparently do.  Chad & Niger (isn't clear to me) ... but they're both competing for the same oil well in Libya (I think). Chad & Niger call for interl military intervention / & are already committed v. Boko Haram & Mali. Libya - pro military intervention: *France (yep) *Britain (likely) + *Egypt *Mali *Niger *Senegal *Chad *UAE Libya - against military intervention: Sudan (but Sudan recognises Tobruk) Tunisia Algeria (I think?) https://archive.is/q5Hc1 ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Madama (in Niger) = site of former French colonial fort (built in 1931) = French forward operating base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama Nafusa Mountains =  first hotbed for anti-Gaddafi protests {French & British promoted?} /  45,000 displaced, went: Tunisia. [wikipedia] ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT This was a good article.  Translation not really good, but I think the summary's OK. So many countries involved.  Find it hard to make sense of them all. The part about the extremists stuck me as very funny, because they're all Islamic extremists. I wasn't aware that special ops are deployed even when war is confined to air-strikes ... in which case, it's not really confined to air-strikes. Annoyed about the French interference in the Balkans. French are going on my list of most despicable European players. PS  ... I'm gonna guess that the writer is firmly on the neocon / NATO side.  It's probably worth bearing in mind when reading the article. ꕤ