Italy will send 200 soldiers to Libya, Reuters reported on September 12, citing an unnamed government source. The soldiers will be on a humanitarian mission, guarding 100 doctors and nurses also sent by Libya. Nevertheless, as Reuters noted, “this will be the first overt troop deployment by a Western nation”—though Libya and other powers have admitted to running covert operations in the country.

The hospital will treat soldiers from Libya’s United Nations-backed government. Italy had previously been treating these soldiers by flying them to Libya.

In August, Italy deployed ships to Libya’s coast. But even though Libya is severely unstable and has no fully functioning government, Libyans resent this intervention by the Italians. Reuters reported that “in Tripoli, a poster of resistance hero Omar al-Mukhtar, who battled Italian rule in Libya in the 1920s, was hung near the capital’s main square with the inscription ‘No to a return to colonization.’”

In 2015, the European Union launched the Operation Sophia naval operation in response to the migrant crisis. TheTrumpet.com editor in chief Gerald Flurry discussed this in his July 2016 article “Mediterranean Battle Escalating Into World War III,” writing, “Operation Sophia’s last two phases will see EU military operations inside Libyan territorial waters—and then, finally, European boots on the ground in Libya.”

The first European boots on the ground, in addition to existing covert operations, appear to be these Italian troops. The EU is slowly beginning to infiltrate Libya.

According to Reuters, “almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years ….” Political tensions have increased because of it. After a surge of immigrants from Libya earlier this year, August saw a dramatic decrease in number.

TheTrumpet.com wrote that is the result of a “shady migrant deal”:

It turns out that Italy has been working behind the scenes for a couple of months on behalf of the European Union to financially induce Libya to keep the migrants—another attempt at bribe the gatekeeper.

The difference is that Libya today doesn’t have one strongman for Europe to bribe. Instead, given Libya’s fractious state without a central authority, Italy has been forced to pay off a whole host of mini-dictators and militias, all of the gatekeepers, to different degrees, of the migrant routes from southern Libya to the northern coast.

Put another way, this means Italy has begun to pay off the very groups responsible for smuggling people through Libya and onto boats in the first place.

This, it turns out, is the way Europe has chosen to deal with the Libyan migrant crisis and was the cause of August’s drastic reduction of migrants making it to Italy.

Libya now depends on the flow of cash from Europe, putting it in a weak position. The UN has also promised to contribute to the acceleration of the return of migrants from Libya. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (unhcr) and the International Organization for Migration (iom) have a fund of €170 million (us$200.8 million) in place to improve the migrant crisis in Libya.

A clash between radical Islam and Europe is building, and Libya will be heavily involved.

Mr. Flurry wrote:

This exact scenario was prophesied 2,500 years ago in the biblical book of Daniel!

As I wrote in 2011, Daniel 11:40-43 unlock the strategy of the radical Muslims headed by Iran, referred to here as “the king of the south.” (For proof of the prophetic identity of this power, request our free booklet The King of the South.) …

This verse shows a pushy foreign policy from the south being countered and destroyed by a far superior power from the north. But pay close attention to the verses that follow: They indicate the specific nations that will be part of this Iranian-led Islamic bloc and be conquered by the king of the north.

“He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape” (verse 42). As we have said for 20 years, this indicates that Egypt will join in an alliance with Iran. But notice who else will be in that alliance.

“But he [the king of the north] shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” “At his steps” means they will join his army or be under his authority. Why would Libya and Ethiopia be subjugated like this by the king of the north? They too were allied with the king of the south.

As European powers move into Libya, they are coming closer to clashing with Iran. He continued:

The European Union and its Western allies have created a situation where German troops will once again set foot in Libya. Once those troops get there, radical Islam will be there to confront them.

It will also set up the titanic clash of Daniel 11:40. However, the clash with the king of the south will not end with Libya. As the prophecies in Daniel reveal, more nations will fall in the whirlwind created by this king of the north.

Watch the Mediterranean! Bible prophecy shows that it will be a major staging ground for battles that will escalate into world war!

Europe is being drawn ever closer to this war. For more about it, and where it is leading, request Gerald Flurry’s free booklets The King of the Southand Libya and Ethiopia in Prophecy.