Italy, which has supported the anti-IS offensive in Sirte by providing medical care for seriously wounded GNA forces, said it welcomed the USA strikes. He refused to say whether the USA was entitled to hit targets without Libya’s approval.
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“We hope these air strikes can be conducted over a short amount of time and that their forces forces will be able to move even faster in terms of removing ISIL from that area”, Cook said.
Strikes on Monday targeted a specific tank location and two Islamic State vehicles that posed a threat to government forces.
Obama authorized the new strikes after recommendations from Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, according to Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook.
A few foreign powers have offered support to the GNA’s decision in joining the coalition against IS and also revive the oil production in Libya. The Islamists have controlled the town since June of a year ago.
Libya slid into chaos after the ouster and killing of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. There are several hundred to about 1,000 ISIL fighters in Sirte, Cook said. “And, we’ll continue to do that because we want to, again, strike at ISIL anywhere is rears its head”.
The strikes mark the start of a more intense American role in the fight against Islamic State in Libya, as the USA steps in to assist the fragile UN-backed government there.
Wright said that GNA-aligned forces have previously recaptured territory around Sirte from ISIS.
The GNA was the result of a U.N.-mediated deal signed in December to end a conflict between two rival governments and the armed groups that supported them. Cook said the strikes were carried out under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, authorities that the U.S. Congress approved to hunt al-Qaida in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. US military officials now peg the number of ISIS fighters in the city at around 2,000 following months of Libyan military attacks.
The last acknowledged USA air strikes in Libya were on an Islamic State training camp in the western city of Sabratha in February.
The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship Wasp is operating in the Mediterranean Sea, in the vicinity of Libya.
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The U.S. aircraft involved in the Libyan attack are not based in the war-torn country, the officials said.
