In brief: U.S., Britain say Libya needs government, not weapons

UNITED NATIONS – Two of the most powerful members of the U.N. Security Council are rejecting Libya’s call to lift a U.N. arms embargo so it can defend itself against the Islamic State group, saying Thursday that the chaotic country needs a national unity government first.

Libya’s foreign minister told an emergency council meeting Wednesday that lifting the embargo is necessary as the militant group establishes a presence in northern Africa and moves closer to Europe. Alarm soared after a video released over the weekend showed the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians there.

“If we fail to have arms provided to us, this can only play into the hands of extremists,” Mohammed al Dairi said.

But the United States and Britain are openly worried about allowing more weapons into a country that has two separate governments, multiple militant groups and a high risk of weapons falling into unwanted hands.

Libya is split between the internationally recognized government based in Tobruk in the east and another government in Tripoli, backed by Islamist militias. The U.N. embargo has been in place since 2011 when dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown.

In Washington, D.C., State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. position on keeping the arms embargo hasn’t changed.

Associated Press

U.S. identifies Syrian group of trainees

WASHINGTON – Six months after President Barack Obama announced plans to degrade and destroy the Islamic State militant group, the Pentagon has identified the first batch of Syrian opposition fighters for U.S. military training to take on the group in Syria.

The long delay in building a U.S.-backed ground force has reflected the challenge of identifying so-called moderates willing to focus on fighting only Islamic State and not Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in a civil war approaching its fourth year.

Gen. Michael Nagata, working with a team at U.S. Central Command, will seek to weed out any anti-Western extremists from the first group of 1,200 trainees by vetting their backgrounds against U.S. databases and intelligence from allies in the region, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The Pentagon ultimately aims to train and arm 5,400 fighters to help confront the Islamist militants who control most of northern and eastern Syria. Officials said about 3,000 fighters will be trained this year. Training with light arms will begin this spring at sites in Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Eventually, the proxy force could operate as spotters on the front lines to call in airstrikes from U.S. and coalition warplanes, Kirby said.

As many as 1,000 U.S. military and security personnel may take part in the training operation, Kirby said. Only about 100 have gone to the region so far, however. The CIA is training another rebel group at a camp in Jordan.

Tribune News Service