British Troops Headed to Tunisia to Keep ISIS Off Libya Border

DM: Britain Urgently Helping Form New Libya Govt

British Defense Minister Michael Fallon today announced that his nation will be sending a team of ground troops to Tunisia to join that nation’s Libyan border defense operations, aiming to keep ISIS from infiltrating across the border.

The first deployment will be only 20 troops, nominally “trainers,” but Fallon talked up the need to keep ISIS out of Tunisia and hinted that this might just be the first step, adding that Britain is also “urgently” helping to try to form a new unity government in Libya.

Fallon also suggested that once there was a new government in place in Libya, Britain would be open to more expansive military action there, at the invitation of this new faction they are working to install.

30 British tourists were killed in an ISIS attack in Tunisia last summer, which is fueling a lot of the government’s interest in getting involved in that country. Britain is also known to be backing a French ground invasion of Libya, though that invasion is officially a “secret.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.