Islamist fighters from the Libya Dawn militant group recently enjoyed diving and swimming at an evacuated residential annex of the United States Embassy in Tripoli. The apparent pool party for jihadis appeared in a YouTube video posted on August 31.
Some of the videotaped militants were in military uniform, armed with guns; some wore casual summer attire and roamed the party with cell phone cameras, and some took turns swan diving from a second-floor balcony into the compound’s pool.
The Islamist militants are part of a jihadi coalition that now controls Tripoli and other parts of Libya. The advance of Libya Dawn to the capital city has driven Libya’s elected government to Tobruk. The Islamists have also taken over the airport. Western intelligence has reported 11 commercial airliners missing from the airport, raising fears of 9/11-style terrorist attacks.
Marines evacuated the last American diplomatic personnel from Libya in late July. The scene at the diplomatic compound from which they fled symbolizes how far the U.S. has plunged from its status as a reputed, decisive superpower.
After America led the invasion of Libya in Operation Odyssey Dawn in March 2011, Trumpet readers knew exactly what to expect. Gerald Flurry warned that “the government that replaces Qadhafi will be a thousand times worse” (October 2011).
In addition to rival militia groups, Libya now has rival governments—an illegitimate, Islamist one trying to establish itself in Tripoli, and an elected house of representatives afraid for its life. Former Gen. Khalifa Haftar is fighting the various Islamist groups, yet he is neither endorsed nor denounced by the elected legislature.
The chaos in Libya—and America’s reaction, or lack thereof—has prompted other nations to take matters into their own hands. Against America’s policy and without informing Washington, local powers Egypt and the United Arab Emirates conducted two clandestine air strikes against the Islamists in Tripoli in August.
America has very publicly failed in Libya, and the nation is spiraling into chaos.