US airstrikes on positions around Sirte have allowed forces supporting Libya’s unity government to advance inside the Islamic State militant group’s (ISIS) bastion, it was reported Tuesday.
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The number of ISIS fighters in Libya has grown to more than 5000 over the past year, although the United Nations has announced that numerous fighters may have left Sirte over that frame of time. The militant group took complete control of the city past year, turning it into its most important base outside Syria and Iraq, but is now besieged in the city centre.
Italy has insisted Libya must request any anti-IS airstrikes, which Libya’s United Nations -brokered unity government did in the case of Sirte.
“Today, at the request of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), the United States military conducted precision air strikes against ISIL targets in Sirte, Libya, to support GNA-affiliated forces seeking to defeat ISIL in its primary stronghold in Libya”, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in an August 1 statement. Cook added that the USA strikes in Sirte would continue.
American aircraft destroyed a tank and two ISIS vehicles that the Pentagon says posed a threat to Libyan fighters trying to retake the city.
The airstrikes were authorized by President Barack Obama on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Two previous attacks, in November and February, targeted individuals who the US said posed a threat.
The strikes send a “very strong message not only against terrorism, but also for the stabilization of Libya”, Gentiloni said.
There are also small numbers of US and global special operations forces already on the ground in Libya, but Cook said today that none of them is involved in the fighting in Sirte.
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Western officials say the number of IS militants in Libya, previously estimated at 6,000, is declining in the face of concerted government action and pressure from other militia.
