Libya’s collapse and rise of IS was Cameron’s fault, says report

A new report has emerged that has laid the blame for the destruction of Libya squarely at the door of David Cameron and his government.

The UK parliamentary report was highly critical of France and Britain in 2011, when they collaborated to bring down Muammar Gaddafi, then the Libyan leader.

The ex-PM, who stood down after failing to convince voters to Remain in the EU, had been accused of not having a proper strategy to during the air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces.

There have been question marks over the intelligence used during the military intervention. The fall-out for the war torn country, has seen IS move into the area and take control of swathes of the failed state, and increased the terrorist groups power across the Islamic world.

However, the Government said the action was sanctioned by the UN security council and as requested by the Arab League.

The coalition of France and Britain launched strikes against Gaddafi after he was about to attack Benghazi, held by rebels opposed to his leadership.

The fall of the tyrant Gaddafi was celebrated throughout the Arab world and beyond. However, like the Iraq intervention, there was no strategy to deal with the aftermath and the power vacuum left after the death of Gaddafi.

The country descended into a murderous power struggle between militias, IS and rival governments.

Back in January David Cameron, then PM, defended his actions, and said Gaddafi had to be toppled as the dictator “was bearing down on people in Benghazi and threatening to shoot his own people like rats”.

However the committee believes that Cameron took “elements of Gaddafi’s rhetoric at face value,” and also didn’t identify “the militant Islamist extremist element in the rebellion.”

Tony Blair has been blamed for the Iraq war and the hundreds of thousands of people who have died since, in a country that has been in a constant state of war since the US-UK intervention. It is yet to be seen if David Cameron will be held to account for the destruction, devastation of loss of life in Libya, in years to come.

Joe Mellor

Head of Content

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