Sputnik International publishes an article based on their interview with Jason Pack of Libya Analysis. The article includes audio of the interview.Pack discusses the rationales behind the recent US airstrikes. At the highest level,
"Obviously we’ve [the West] been propping up the [Libyan] Government of National Accord (GNA), after eighteen months of UN negotiations, the West very much wanted to have a 'unity' government which would invite them to help in the fight against ISIS," Pack, a Libyan researcher who runs the website EyeonISISinLibya.com, told Radio Sputnik.
Regarding the legality of US this involvement, Pack says
The new airstrike campaign is legal under international law, given that the GNA is Libya’s UN-recognized government. "Keep in mind that the sovereign and internationally recognized government…invited the US to conduct these airstrikes. That’s part of the reason that the GNA was set up, precisely to make that invitation in a way that is legally binding under international law."
On top of the typical complications of everything Libyan,
Complicating the matter is that the US is backing different forces than its French and Italian allies
and
Moreover, in Benghazi, [Khalifa] Haftar, who is the general of the opposing government, the House of Representatives government, is fighting against the Islamists there.
It should also be noted that Sputnik International titles their piece, "Airstrikes in Libya: Will the US be drawn into Another Quagmire?" Yet Pack is at pains to say,
Doing a few airstrikes does not represent a meaningful escalation.