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         Sissi Seeks UN Mandate on International Intervention in Libya

   by VOA News

   Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said Tuesday the United
   Nations Security Council should adopt a resolution calling for
   international military intervention in Libya.

   Sissi's comments came in an interview with France's Europe 1 radio, a
   day after his forces carried out airstrikes targeting Islamic State
   militants in the eastern Libyan city of Darna. Those bombings were
   retaliation for the militants' beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic
   Christians.

   "There is no other choice, taking into account the agreement of the
   Libyan people and government and that they call on us to act," he said.

   The beheadings were the latest example of the chaos that has persisted
   in Libya where parallel governments and warring militias struggle for
   control four years after the death of former leader Moammar Gadhaffi.

   The U.N. did authorize airstrikes in Libya during the rebel push to
   oust Gadhaffi, allowing NATO to carry out the attacks against Libyan
   forces under a mandate to protect civilians.

   Libya's air force, backed by the country's internationally recognized
   government, joined Egypt in Monday's airstrikes, which killed dozens of
   militants and several civilians, according to military officials.

   The rival parliament based in Tripoli, which is supported by some
   Islamist groups, denounced the airstrikes as a violation of
   international law and Libyan sovereignty.

   The U.N. Security Council condemned the beheadings, saying: "This crime
   once again demonstrates the brutality of [the Islamic State group],
   which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people
   from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to
   any basic value of humanity."

   Since 2014, the Islamic State group has killed hundreds of civilians in
   Iraq and Syria and claimed responsibility for the deaths of several
   foreigners and publicized graphic videos of those killings on social
   media.

   Last month, it released footage of the immolation death of a Jordanian
   pilot shot down over Syria as well as pictures purporting to show the
   beheading of two Japanese hostages.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/sissi-seeks-un-mandate-on-internation
   al-intervention-in-libya/2647046.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/sissi-seeks-un-mandate-on-international-intervention-in-libya/2647046.html