ISIS Credited for Embassy Attacks as U.S. Continues to Seek Islamist Political Participation

Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility for two separate attacks in Libya between Sunday and early Monday morning. On Sunday, gunman drove up to the South Korean embassy in Tripoli killing two Libyan security guards and wounding a third person. A South Korean foreign ministry dignitary in Seoul reported that all Korean nationals were accounted for within the country and no casualties were reported. No non-Korean Foreign Service officials within the embassy were injured. Since the attack, South Korean officials are considering relocating the embassy to a safer area

Early Monday morning a bomb was put in a garbage can that exploded right in front of the Moroccan embassy. Morocco security spokesperson Essam al-Naas confirmed that no civilians were wounded or killed.  The bomb reportedly damaged the gate of the embassy and a residential building next to the embassy located in the marketplace of the Ben Ashour district.

NBC verified the claim made by Libya’s Islamic State branch through their twitter page that they were responsible for both attacks.  The statement held that “soldiers of the caliphate” targeted both buildings.

With Libya’s internationally recognized government forced out of Tripoli and into Tobruk by the rival Islamist Libyan Dawn faction, resulting in increasing anarchy.

The Libyan Dawn consists of primarily Muslim Brotherhood members, allied Islamist militias, who wish to bring about sharia law to Libya. General Haftar, a former military officer under Qaddafi, has been selected by the internationally recognized government to serve as a military commander for their forces against Libyan Dawn. Haftar’s Operation Dignity consists of Arab nationalists, federalists, anti-Islamists who are directly confronting the Islamist ideology that motivates Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. They are backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both of whom view themselves as threatened by the Brotherhood’s Islamist project.

While the media gets excited about the Islamic State’s dirty business, the United States and United Nations are encouraging appeasement talks between Libyan Dawn and Libya’s international government. Neither the United Nations nor United States seems to understand that a unity government is not in the interest of either party.

The United States needs to stop pushing Libya’s internationally backed government to reach a political agreement, and start discussing how best to assist the government with defeating jihadist forces,not limited to just Islamic State.

The United States shouldn’t be trying to force the Libyan government to accept Islamist participation, and instead start supporting efforts by nationalist, ethnic and/or tribal forces to oppose Islamist ideology, both by Islamic State and Al Qaeda, but also by the Brotherhood and its allies.  Doing so will ultimately be the swifter path to stability and security.