"As we, and our foreign allies and partners, have made it harder for foreign terrorists to reach Syria and Iraq, we have seen an uptick in the number of ISIL [ISIS] fighters heading to Libya," he said following a meeting with security officials at the headquarters of the CIA.
"We are going to continue to use the full range of our tools to roll ISIL back from Libya while insisting the new, nascent Libyan government works to secure the country," he added.
While the US has bombed ISIS in Libya it hasn't fully expanded its coalition air campaign to that country. It says it would like to intervene against ISIS once a successful Libyan government fills the power vacuum currently being exploited by various armed groups in that country and invites the US in to coordinate counter-ISIS operations with them.
The arrival of the UN-backed government in the Libyan capital Tripoli this month has led to hopes that a new government which the US can work with will soon be in place.
The number of ISIS militants in Libya is estimated by US intelligence to have doubled in the last 12 to 18 months.
Obama's comments come a mere week after he told Fox News that the "worst mistake" of his time in office was not planning sufficiently for the future of Libya following the fall of the regime of Colonel Mumammar Gaddafi in 2011 to ragtag rebel fighters supported by the air forces of the US and its NATO allies.
He still nevertheless believes that overthrowing Gaddafi was "the right thing to do."
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/1TVq50l
via Defense News
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