Ethnic Groups Of Libya

With Libya's security rapidly deteriorating, the number of migrants who set out in smugglers boats from Libyan shores toward Italy has surged. On Sunday alone, Italian authorities rescued more than 2,100 migrants and refugees, many of them fleeing the Syrian war.

Some in Rome fear IS advances could increase risks that terrorists, mingled among boatloads of migrants, could reach Italy from Libya, a few hundred kilometers (miles) across the Mediterranean.

Political support for Italian military involvement grew as Egypt carried out airstrikes against IS strongholds across its border in Libya after the extremists beheaded Egyptian Christian hostages.

"From how things are evolving in Libya, frankly, it's difficult to imagine a scenario different from a military kind of international intervention," said Enrico Zanetti, a Cabinet undersecretary.