Britain poised to send 1,000 troops into Libya as war against ISIS escalates
15 March 2016
One suspect dead, four officers injured in Brussels terrorism raid
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britain-poised-send-1000-troops-7563278 Brussels (dpa) - A suspect was killed and four police officers injured Tuesday following a raid related to the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last year, local media reported.
Belgium has helped France investigate the November attacks, as several of the suspected attackers in Paris had links to the neighbouring country. The violence in the French capital left 130 people dead and hundreds injured.
Several suspects are still being sought, most notably Salah Abdeslam, a Frenchman who had lived in Brussels and is suspected of having joined his brother in targeting restaurants and bars during the Paris killings.
But Belgian media reported that the police operation carried out Tuesday in the southern Brussels neighbourhood of Forest had not targeted Abdeslam. Instead, it had focused on the "entourage" of one of the 11 people who were arrested on terrorism charges in Belgium following the Paris attacks, the newspaper Le Soir wrote.
Belgian and French investigators jointly carried out the raid, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Federal prosecution spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told the VRT broadcaster and the Belga news agency that the first shots were fired from inside the targeted apartment right after police rang the bell.
The investigators were not expecting to find anyone at the apartment, which had been rented under a false name, RTBF said.
After the shootout, one suspect with at least one Kalashnikov rifle barricaded himself in the apartment, while a second hid in a vacant lot nearby, according to Le Soir.
A police dog equipped with a video camera was sent into the vacant lot, but had to turn around after being shot at by the suspect, the daily wrote.
Several rounds of gunfire were heard in the area cordoned off around the apartment throughout Tuesday afternoon, with the number of reported injuries steadily rising. The police operation was still ongoing as night fell on the Belgian capital.
In the early evening, Van Der Sypt told Belga that a body was found in the apartment after police made their way inside. It was not Abdeslam, he added. It was unclear if one or two other suspects were still at large, Belgian media said.
Journalists on the scene also reported seeing smoke coming out of a building in the sealed-off area. RTBF said that one suspect had been equipped with teargas.
People in childcare centres, schools and an Audi factory nearby were initially told to stay indoors, but the children were later evacuated.
Resident Audrey Simonian told dpa that she had been waiting at police barriers since 5:30 pm (1630 GMT) to get back to home, where her child was with a babysitter.
"I am surprised. Normally this is a calm, family-friendly neighbourhood," she said.
19:37, 15 Mar 2016
Updated 19:37, 15 Mar 2016
By Jack Blanchard
The troops will be on the ground to protect the fragile new Libyan Government as part of a 6,000-strong allied force
Britain will send 1,000 troops into Libya
Britain is poised to send 1,000 ground troops into Libya as the war against ISIS escalates, senior MPs have said.
The Commons foreign affairs committee said it understands the UK has agreed to send in ground forces as part of a 6,000-strong allied force to protect the fragile new Libyan Government.
The cross-party group of MPs - who have just returned from a five-day trip to North Africa - also claimed the newly-formed Libyan Government is set to request the UK extend air strikes against Islamic State from Iraq and Syria into Libya.
The Government has so far failed to respond to the claims, and committee chair Crispin Blunt called on Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to make an urgent statement in the House of Commons.
“The (Libyan) Government’s first formal action will be to request the UK and its allies conduct air strikes against ISIS targets in Libya,” Mr Blunt wrote in a letter to the Foreign Secretary, which published on the committee’s website.
“In the course of our meetings and discussions in North Africa, we also heard that the UK plans to contribute 1,000 ground troops to a 6,000-strong international force which will be deployed in the near future.”
The Mirror first revealed the plan to send 6,000 international troops into Libya back in January.
We told then how crack SAS troops were already in Libya preparing for the arrival of around 1,000 British infantrymen to fight ISIS.
Read more: Barack Obama blames David Cameron for Libya descending into a "sh** show"
Mr Blunt said he understands the ground troops will have two objectives - to train the Libyan Army and to protect the new Government in Tripoli.
“The pre-emptive deployment of UK military forces is now a matter for the House of Commons,” Mr Blunt told the Foreign Secretary in his letter.
“I therefore request that you make a statement to the House on the state of the plan for any deployment of UK military forces.”
Getty A Libyan man walks past a damaged building in Sirte
The troops will train the Libyan Army and protect the new government
Libya has descended into lawlessness and chaos after Britain joined forces with other Western nations to help depose dictator Muammar Gaddafi during a civil uprising in 2011.
Over the past two years ISIS has started to take an increasing hold in some parts of the country.
Last week US President Barack Obama criticised David Cameron for allowing Libya to become a “s*** show”.
The President said: “There’s room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya’s proximity, being invested in the follow-up.”
Any attack on targets in Libya would be likely to require the approval of the House of Commons.
And it would come just months after the fraught vote last November over whether to attack ISIS in Syria, which saw the Government win the day with Labour MPs badly split on the issue.
