LIBYA'S uprising in 2011 seemed straightforward. "Qadhafi treated the country like a farm," one Tripolitanian told your correspondent, to explain the angry energy around him, "and the people were its animals." The revolution and civil war to topple the dictator was a heady period, full of optimism that a new state, helped into being by Western intervention, would deliver freedom to a long-suffering people. Now many Libyans ask if the bloodshed was worth it. Two governments claim to rule Libya. United Nations mediation to end a civil conflict between sides that roughly represent them has so far been fruitless. Islamic extremists operate with impunity in Sirte, Derna, Sabratha and parts of Benghazi, the cradle of the revolution. Militias have carved up Tripoli into zones of control. Oil production, Libya's main export business, is now just 300,000 b/d, a fifth of its pre-2011 level. The economy has collapsed. For a country of only 6 million people, Libya is unusually important to the rest of the world. Southern European countries worry about refugees arriving from across the Mediterranean. The US and others fret about the terrorists building a new base from which to spread violence. In January, Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for a deadly assault on the Corinthia, one of the capital's prestigious hotels and home to foreign investors, diplomats and even the Tripoli-based prime minister Omar al-Hassi.
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