Daesh in Libya posted by Richard Seymour

It seems likely that Daesh affiliates are behind the attack in Belgium last week. Of course, this provoked the usual run of really dreadful commentary, about which I said all I need to say here. However, one thing that is surprisingly omitted in much of the reporting is the way in which Daesh are actually finding new territorial possessions in superficially surprising ways. I say, 'superficially surprising' - no one who understands the underlying dynamic here would be surprised to find that Daesh now has territory in Libya, as well as Syria and Iraq.

Of course, some of the preconditions for Daesh's spread to Libya were provided by the particular nature of the US-led intervention intended to pilot a narrow, pro-US sector of the opposition to power. But the jihadists have particularly benefited in Libya from an Egyptian foreign policy intervention aimed at crushing the Muslim Brothers. For the full background on that, I direct you to my broadcast for TeleSur recently, reviewing the media coverage of Libya and exploring the pretexts for a renewed war in the country: