On Sunday African Command (AFRICOM) announced that US troops are being
withdrawn from Libya to some undisclosed destination, citing the unpredictable security situation in the country as a reason for a temporary pullout.
Fighting near the capital city of Tripoli has been growing for awhile,
but seems to have really taken off in southern Tripoli over the weekend,
which led the US to decide that it would be easier for them to be
someplace else right now.
Where the US troops are going is unclear, with AFRICOM saying that
security reasons mean they can’t disclose where, and the spokesman
saying that it is particularly important that ISIS doesn’t have a map of
where US ground troops actually are.
US forces are most likely to be redeployed to Europe temporarily, of
course, as there really aren’t a lot of stable AFRICOM operating nations
where the troops wouldn’t risk being sucked into some other conflict.
US Pulls Troops From Libya As Rivals Battle
Officials say where troops are going will be a secret
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.
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