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.

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.

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