The kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in Chibok in northeast Nigeria on April 14 by Boko Haram, the Nigerian based Islamist group shocked the world. U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and other Western leaders want to "bring back our girls." But it was their air raid against Gaddafi's Libya in 2011 that boosted the fortunes of Boko Haram.

The fall of Gaddafi not only resulted in the splintering of Libya into warring tribal territories, but also destabilized northern Africa, especially Mali and Algeria, as the ethnic Tuareg fighters who had trained with and supported Gaddafi as his security forces left Libya for Mali carrying with them large quantities of weapons.

Those weapons later fell into the hands of radical Islamic groups: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine, and Boko Haram, who had overthrown the Tuareg militants from Libya.

According to press reports, AQIM acquired much of Libya's "state armoury," including such sophisticated weapons as SAM-7 anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. And these arms have been transferred to Ansar Dine and Boko Haram, enabling them to mount audacious and deadly attacks.

Kidnapping the school girls was not the only abduction Boko Haram had carried out. In early 2013, it launched a cross-border operation from its base in northern Nigeria, entering Cameroon to kidnap a French family of seven and held them hostage in its Nigerian camp. That was done in retaliation to French military action in Mali, which led to massive displacement of Malian citizens.

Algeria too, suffered terrorist attacks by Islamic militants. The best known incident was the storming of a gas plant in the Algerian Sahara in January 2013, in which 40 workers were killed, all but one were foreigners — British, Americans, Norwegians and Japanese.

Obama, Cameron and the now-retired Sarkozy, the former French president, justified their air war by saying that Gaddafi was evil. Saddam Hussein was also toppled by the U.S. and Britain and killed on a similar justification.

George W. Bush and Tony Blair invaded Iraq in 2003, accusing Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and somehow having a hand in the 9/11 terror attacks.

Both were lies. No WMD were found anywhere in occupied Iraq, and there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Not any more. The toppling and killing of Saddam Hussein not only intensified the ethnic and religious conflicts between the Shiites and Sunnis throughout the greater Middle East, but also brought Al-Qaeda into Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Lebanon and Libya.

Al-Qaeda's black flag is flying over Fallujah and much of the upper Euphrates Valley. It is stronger than ever as it now controls Anbar Province, the Sunni heartland of northern Iraq.

The recently stepped up drone war against al-Qaeda in Yemen killed many civilians and is thus helping recruit more jihadist fighters.

War is the most unpredictable human enterprise. Both the Iraq and Libya wars were counterproductive. They destabilized the greater Middle East and North Africa and tremendously increased the terrorist threat.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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