Following the end of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011 Libya has been unstable and in a state of unending violence. Libya's PM left the country last week after he was voted out of office. A large number of Libya's leaders have been recalled from Iraq and Syria where they are coming under increasing assault.
The instability has allowed ISIL to gain access to the country.
Libya is so out of control that rebel groups have N. Korean flagged oil tankers picking up their crude oil and leaving port without being challenged. "The Libyan navy blamed rough weather for its failure to stop the ship"
"Without a central government with any real power Libya is falling apart. "
Publically mixed signals are coming from the U.S., regarding participation in action against ISIL however the U.S. bombed an ISIL training camp in Libya last month. Killing 41 people mostly from Tunisia. In Libya the presence of Western SOF is an open secret French, U.S. and British forces are likely to have been conducting operations there for two years. The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the French Special forces have been "helping Libyan troops to battle ISIL fighters in Benghazi for two months."
The commander of U.S. SF in Africa "believes that Libya will need the U.S. to defeat ISIL."
It is evident in looking at the lawlessness of Libya and the failure of their military to intervene despite the Libyan President saying if the N. Korean oil tanker attempted to leave port it would be "reduced to a pile of metal" shows that the government is either without power or without desire to protect it's own citizens or to stop the movements and activities of rebels within the country. Leaving a vacuum in Libya will allow either a new insurgent group to take root or give ISIL another breeding ground.