CAIRO: Egypt called Tuesday for UN-backed international intervention in Libya after launching air strikes on Islamic State group targets following the beheadings of Egyptian Christians.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi said “there is no choice” but to create a global coalition to confront the extremists in Libya, in an interview aired by France’s Europe 1 radio.

Egypt’s foreign minister was in New York seeking backing from UN Security Council members for military intervention and to demand “full support” against the IS, a ministry spokesman said.

The diplomatic push comes a day after Egyptian F-16s bombed militant bases in Derna and on the Feb. 17 anniversary of the beginning of the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that ousted dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

The raids were ordered hours after IS in Libya released a gruesome video showing the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians who had traveled there seeking work.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein Tuesday called the murders a “vile crime targeting people on the basis of their religion.” He denounced “the ghastly attempt to justify and glorify it in a video.”

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians remain in Libya, and their government is encouraging them to leave, foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told reporters.

France, which agreed Monday to sell Egypt advanced Rafale warplanes, has called with Cairo on the UN to adopt measures to confront the jihadis in Libya.

Italy, the former colonial power there and located just across the Mediterranean, ruled out intervention without UN backing and suggested a political solution remained the best option.

“What is happening is very complicated. We are following events closely and with concern but there is no need to jump from total indifference to hysteria and an unreasonable reaction,” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told TG5 television.

Abdelatty said it was time for the international effort against IS — which has been hammered by US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria — to focus on its presence elsewhere.