ISIS at Europe's Doorstep with Attacks on Libyan Oil Facilities

While ISIS's self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria has been the main focus of the West's military operations, the Islamic State's Libyan branch is making major noise right at Europe's doorstep.

ISIS already controls Sirte, along Libya's Mediterranean coast, reportedly boasting some 5,000 fighters in a city that is just a stone's throw from Italy.

ISIS's Sirte stronghold not only gives the terror group a prime perch from which to transit jihadis into Europe, it also presents ISIS with a golden opportunity to tap into Libya's vast oil supply and use it to raise money to fund jihadi operations, similar to what it has done in Iraq and Syria.

As if on cue, ISIS is now doing exactly that--initiating clashes with Libyan security forces at the country's two main oil terminals. Here's more, from the Financial Times.

"Libya's National Oil Company made a desperate appeal for help on Tuesday after ISIS fighters clashed with forces guarding key oil terminals, shelling storage facilities and setting oil tanks on fire," the Times reported. "The attack adds to fears that the jihadis, who have established a stronghold in the north African oil producer, will gain control of Libya's oil facilities, much as they have done in Syria, where they have funded themselves from sales of crude.

"We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations in Es-Sider and Ras Lanuf," NOC said in what it titled a "Cry for Help" on its website, the Financial Times reports.

Mohamed al-Harari at NOC said the clashes near Es-Sider continued Tuesday evening. Shells fired by the militants had damaged the port's pipe network and set a tank ablaze.
 
"They are using heavy weapons," al-Harari said. "They came from the west and the south and there are casualties both today and yesterday."

The more Libya descends into chaos, the firmer ISIS's foothold there will grow and the bolder its attacks will become. The oil installation assaults may be a taste of things to come.

The West's foray into Libya, via NATO, in 2011 to oust dictator Moamar Gaddafi turned out to be a foreign policy mistake of epic proportions, paving the way for a failed state and jihadi hotbed at Europe's doorstep.

It remains to be seen whether the West will need to intervene in Libya once again to eliminate the burgeoning ISIS threat in its backyard.