SIRTE, Libya—The troops moved through a rehearsal for hostage rescue and direct action against terrorist targets with the kind of discipline that comes only from serious training. What made the scene remarkable was not the tactics alone. It was who was training together.
At Flintlock 2026, US Africa Command’s (USAFRICOM’s) premier special operations exercise, Libyan forces from rival camps that had spent years on opposing sides of a civil war trained in Sirte alongside US and international partners. Libya, Italy, and the United States announced the exercise as part of a broader effort to support the continued development of a unified Libyan military, and AFRICOM described the Libya portion as the first time the country had hosted an operating location with joint forces training alongside one another.
That setting mattered. Sirte was once the Islamic State’s (also known as Daesh’s) most important stronghold outside Iraq and Syria. Seeing Libyans from competing factions train together was a reminder that persistent US engagement can help convert security vacuums into opportunities for stability. It also showed that the United States still has a comparative advantage in Africa when it brings patient diplomacy, professional military partnership, and a realistic understanding of local politics to bear.
