President Barack Obama said five years after the U.S. intervened in Libya to topple then-dictator Moammar Qaddafi and prevent a bloody civil war that the plan pushed by advisers including Hillary Clinton "didn't work" and Libya is now "a mess."

Obama, speaking in interviews with The Atlantic magazine published Thursday, blamed lack of support from European and Gulf allies and longstanding tribal divisions within Libya for the failure of the mission intended to stabilize the country and usher in a democratically elected government.

"When I go back and I ask myself what went wrong, there's room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans -- given Libya's proximity -- being invested in the follow-up," Obama said.

The U.S. "actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected," Obama said. "We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1 billion -- which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap. We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict."

"And despite all that, Libya is a mess," he said.