The Egyptian plan provides for a massive offensive on the Libyan coast around Derna, which became the provincial capital of Isis. The Earth attack would be supported by the launch of airborne troops already massed in air bases in the Western Desert.
For President Abdel-fattih El-Sisi, the presence of ISIS in eastern Libya, as well as in Sinai, is an unacceptable danger for the country. "We know that the Islamic State has already sent terrorists to some of our cities and infiltrated units in our army".
To counteract this possible offensive, ISIS would have already fortified Cyrenaica with troops from Syria and Iraq.
The attack plan would already have been presented last April 19 to CIA Director John Brennan. President El-Sisi would offer guarantees on the operation. This would not be an invasion, but the elimination of the jihadist cell in Libya to restore power to legitimate government.
The head of government is Abdullah al-Thinni, recognized by the United States and the Western Community as the legitimate prime minister of Libya. The Americans, however, would have categorically opposed a direct invasion of Libya, but not a local action through the Libyan troops loyal to the regime and led by General Khalifa Hifter who created a militia in Benghazi, in the eastern part of the country . For the Egyptians (who continue to supply loyalist troops with weapons and equipment) Hifter would not be a sufficiently strong figure to unify the Libyan nation. Brennan, on the sidelines of the meeting, criticized the possible invasion and invited the Egyptian president to follow the Washington line.
Invitation rejected. Indeed, El-Sisi has an ace up his sleeve called Russia.
Last February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave maximum availability to his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry, saying that Moscow is ready to send a strong contingent formed exclusively by special departments to fight terrorists.
If the Russians were to go to war, it would be a blow to the fundamentalists and the numerous Chechen terrorists in the pay of the Caliphate who would face an enemy they know well. Moscow, which has a hundred thousand men close to the Ukrainian borders, could send from the Black Sea a fighting force fully equipped and ready for combat.
Russian public opinion, after having rediscovered a patriot with the annexation of Crimea, began to push the premier for an intervention in favor of the international community (the western sanctions have given a blow to the Russian economy), without forgetting that this could be the first test-bed for the new Mediterranean Sea Fleet War. The Russians have at least two Specnaz operative groups in the Region.
The Egyptians, who in a few hours will reach the capacity for invasion, could start the operation to protect national integrity. If so, Russian help would be certain. And on the front line, Moscow has already assured the presence of the Specnaz.
Franco Iacch
(photo: MoD Russian Federation)
