Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has launched air strikes against sites of Islamic State (Isis) in Libya after the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.
The Egyptian warplanes targeted jihadist weapon caches, training sites and camps in the border Libyan city of Derna which provides safe haven to the Isis fighters, say the military officials.
Angered by the “barbaric and inhuman” murder committed against its Christians in Libya, Egypt has unleashed its military power against a foreign country for the first time since the 1973 war with Israel.
According to some analysts, the war declared by the Egyptians against the Isis in a neighbouring country involves some serious risks but these risks are worth taking. They say Cairo has responded to the killing of its Citizens as a regional power, but should not be distracted from its domestic problems and pursuing its reforms.
The beheading of the Egyptian Christians takes place few weeks after the brutal execution of a captive Jordanian pilot which prompted Amman to step its fight against the terrorist group of Isis.
It seems that these two incidents have created a new Arab military alliance against the Islamic militant group who targeted Arab countries that support the international military coalition set up by the United States against Daech.
US president Barack Obama has asked lately the Congress to authorize the use of military force against Isis which poses a “threat to the people and stability of Iraq, Syria, and the broader Middle East, and to U.S. national security”.
In several western capitals, interventionists start pushing and building momentum for action in Libya which has become a failed state wherein the Islamic extremists take control of large parts of the country and impose their laws, threatening the interest of the West.