A 2011 popular uprising in Libya (supported militarily by NATO) against dictator Muammar Gaddafi led to significant upheavals in the North African country – in what former US President Barack Obama would later describe as his greatest foreign policy failure. As Libya collapsed into rival governments, factional militias and civil war, radical Islamist groups including so-called Islamic State began seizing territory. Several foreign powers again intervened militarily – including the US. A third wave of interference began in 2019 following the LNA’s siege of Tripoli – with Turkey backing the GNA; and the UAE, Russia and Egypt supporting the LNA.