President Obama met Tuesday with Vice President Joe Biden and his team of national security advisers. | Getty Obama 'on the verge of taking action' in Libya, Corker says

The Obama administration is “on the verge of taking action” against the Islamic State in Libya, where the terrorist network has flourished in recent months, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told Politico on Tuesday.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) declined to describe what kind of action the White House is considering or to put a time frame on it. But his comments come amid increased chatter in the administration about a greater U.S. military role in Libya, where political turmoil has helped create a vacuum hospitable to jihadist groups.


According to some reports, at least 5,000 Islamic State fighters are now operating in the North African country, whose fall into chaos began not long after the U.S. and its allies helped Libyans oust dictator Muammar Qadhafi during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. In Libya, the Islamic State fighters are said to have more freedom than in their territory in Syria and Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition is targeting them on multiple fronts.

“I think [administration officials] realize that with an estimated 5,000 members of Daesh there and growing, they understand the problem is something that needs to be dealt with,” said Corker, using the Islamic State’s Arabic acronym. “And it’s my hope that they’re getting ready to deal with it in a sufficient manner.”

Asked how he knew, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman said: “I have had conversations where, yes, I believe that they’re on the verge of taking action. I just sense that, again, there’s enough concern that with the magnitude, the effect on the country, I just believe that they’re moving toward taking action.”

A National Security Council spokeswoman declined to comment on Corker’s statement but referred a reporter to White House spokesman Josh Earnest’s discussion of Libya during his news briefing a day earlier.

Earnest stressed then that the U.S. has been involved in trying to help Libyans form a central government, and that there’s been progress on that front. He also noted that the U.S. has taken action against the Islamic State in Libya in the past, including a November airstrike that killed the group’s senior leader in the country.

But, pointing to the model used in Syria and Iraq, Earnest indicated that any future U.S. intervention in Libya would not include a significant deployment of American ground troops but rather some sort of U.S. support for others fighting the jihadists.

“And so I certainly wouldn’t rule out that enhancing our intelligence capabilities inside of Libya is something that could be useful to those who are fighting [the Islamic State] on the ground in Libya,” Earnest said.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that Islamic State fighters want to replicate in Libya what they’ve accomplished in Syria and Iraq: control over significant territory.

Libya is “essentially an ungoverned space” where the armed extremists could potentially have “access to substantial oil resources just as they’ve had in Syria,” Clapper testified. “So I think there is some commonality. They are right now kind of centered, or headquartered, in Sirte, which is kind of in the center of the coast of Libya, and they are trying to spread out along the coast and take over more and more areas.”

He also said Islamic State fighters “are present” in major cities in Libya, including Benghazi and Tripoli.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is in Brussels this week for a meeting of roughly two dozen defense ministers about the path ahead in the fight against the Islamic State. Carter has pressed other coalition members to step up their efforts, and he noted last week that the Italians have said they would volunteer to help Libyan officials secure their country.

“The Italians have indicated that they would take the lead in that, rather than the United States, which is fine with us,” Carter told reporters after an event at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. “We’ve indicated we’d support them. A number of other countries have said the same thing.”

Whether such a coalition-based approach in Libya will satisfy Congress is unclear.

Interviews with several senators Tuesday made clear there is growing worry about the rise of the Islamic State not just in Libya but also in other countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. But there’s no consensus on what exactly the U.S. should do militarily in Libya, or whether letting other countries take the lead will work.

John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the chamber’s most hawkish members, said the fact that the Islamic State is growing in Libya is the result of President Barack Obama’s “lead from behind” philosophy.

The Obama administration is “going to have to” intervene in Libya, said the Arizona Republican. “Sooner or later, they will have to, because [the Islamic State] is growing. It’s metastasizing. It’s just a fact. … There are many options that we have there but they have to be, they can’t be this incremental stuff like they’ve practiced in the past. This is the classic mission creep incrementalism that’s just been a total failure.”

Jeremy Herb and Bryan Bender contributed to this report.