Libya: The Complications of Intervention

The Takeaway

Foreign governments have yet to settle on a strategy for how to respond to the fighting in Libya. Over the weekend, a covert British team entered Libya by helicopter during the night, and was quickly detained by anti-Gadhafi forces. They were ultimately released, but what followed was an awkward conversation between the British ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern and a senior rebel leader. The ambassador sounds like he didn’t fully grasp why the special ops team had entered in such a suspicous way. “We sent a small group just to find if there was a hotel,” Northern said. Middle East editor for The Guardian, Ian Black, explains what happened with the British team and why it’s so challenging to come up with a coherent international response to the situation in Libya.

Will you support The World today?

The story you just read is available for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll get us one step closer to our goal of raising $25,000 by June 14. We need your help now more than ever!