US Now Says Libya Bombing Linked to Berlin Market Truck Attack

Officials: Possible Presence of Terrorists Linked to Attack at Libya Camps

Last week, US stealth bombers were deployed to Libya and carried out a protracted bombing campaign against camps on the outskirts of the city of Sirte, killing over 80 people, who they identified as ISIS “external plotters.” Today, we’re finally getting details on what officials at least thought they were doing.

Officials are now claiming that they had intelligence which suggested it was “possible” that terrorists were located at the site who were in some way linked to the mid-December Christmas market attack in Berlin. The attacker in that incident was part of an ISIS recruitment faction inside Germany itself.

Officials say that they are still trying to confirm whether the intelligence upon which the strikes were based is actually true, which seems kind of a rare admission since they killed over 80 people in the attacks, and at the time presented themselves as confident in what they were doing.

This story is also totally different from the one the Pentagon presented on the strikes, as they’d claimed the slain had fled the US-backed invasion of Sirte (albeit apparently not too far), and that they’d been planning to attack the camp for quite some time.

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.