Expected bloodbath in Tripoli an outcome of ill-advised NATO toppling of Gaddafi, historian tells RT

#Libya is back in the headlines after one of its two competing governments sent troops towards #Tripoli. If another bloodbath happens there, it will be the inevitable result of the 2011 #NATO bombing campaign, an expert told RT.

Military vehicles of the Tripoli-allied Misrata forces. ©REUTERS / Hani Amara

The Northern African country was once stable and quite prosperous thanks to large revenues from oil trade. But since 2011, when NATO supported a militant uprising and helped topple, then kill, longtime strongman leader Muammar Gaddafi, it remains a fractured failed state. Last week, the unending feuds between rival factions escalated, with Khalifa Haftar, a powerful military commander, launching an offensive against his rivals from the UN-recognized government in Tripoli.

The general is unlikely to immediately heed calls for a political settlement, believes US political commentator and historian Gerald Horne. This may escalate into a major battle in the capital.

“You may well expect a bloodbath to unfold in Tripoli. Which is quite tragic and unfortunate, but I’d say it’s the inevitable outcome of the ill-advised attack by NATO, led by the US, that resulted in the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi,” he told RT.

The blowback from Gaddafi’s ouster is undeniable and has had a profound effect on other nations, not only in Africa but also in Europe. The 2015 migration crisis in Europe was facilitated by lawlessness in Libya, which served as a launching pad for human traffickers sending asylum-seekers across the Mediterranean to Italy and Greece, for example, Horne pointed out.

Watch a report by RT’s Murad Gazdiev on how a NATO military adventure, ostensibly to root out an ‘evil dictator’ eight years ago, led to misery, suffering and chaos.

Original: https://www.rt.com/news/455852-tripoli-bloodbath-nato-adventure/