Unintended Consequences: Inside Story of an Unsung Counterterrorism Strike

The U.S. hit on ISIS in Libya saved Tunisia but led to an odd standoff with Serbia.

Just before dawn on Feb.19, 2016, U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets dropped a payload of precision-guided bombs on a terrorist training camp in western Libya. The target: a senior Islamic State operative named Noureddine Chouchane. 

Some 1,300 miles away, Vice Admiral Michael T. Franken, deputy director of military operations at the U.S. Afri…