The air assault marks the start of a more forceful American role in the battle against ISIS in Libya, as the USA steps in to help the fragile, UN-installed government.
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Asked if Monday’s airstrikes were the beginning of an air campaign over Libya, Cook said, “We are prepared to carry out more strikes in coordination with the GNA, if those requests are forthcoming”.
USA warplanes carried out their first air strikes on positions of the Islamic State group in Sirte on Monday at the request of the GNA.
However Libya is still deeply divided and a UN-backed government had hesitated to call for US support until now for fear of a backlash.
In Washington, the Pentagon said the raids were launched in response to a request from Sarraj’s Government of National Accord.
Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the GNA needed air support to retake Sirte from the jihadists.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter likens the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as the parent tumor the U.S.-led coalition is bent on destroying. At that time, the White House declared an attack on a farmhouse in the coastal city of Sabratha, west of the capital Tripoli, “successful”.
The bombings were the first by the U.S. in Libya since February, when it targeted Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian militant suspected of planning attacks on Western tourists and thought to be living in an IS training camp.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on its website that it has documented 41 civilian casualties, including 12 deaths and 29 injuries, during the conduct of hostilities across Libya during the month of July 2016. He said the Libyan government is making “great progress” and has reduced Islamic State’s presence in and around Sirte to as few as 1,000 fighters.
The precision strikes, which targeted an Islamic State tank and vehicles, come amid growing concerns about the group’s increased threat to Europe and its ability to inspire attacks across the region, even though its numbers have been shrinking because of attacks from local forces and allied worldwide troops.
The U.S. launched a new campaign of airstrikes Monday aimed at dislodging ISIS from its stronghold in Libya.
“They’ve been having real success”, Brennan said of the Libyan forces, “and the USA had been looking for ways to help them”. They requested airstrikes, reports Al Jazeera, to clear terrain on the city’s outskirts where booby traps, mines, and roadside bombs had slowed their advance.
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According to the BBC, western officials had previously estimated the number of Daesh militants in Libya at around 6,000.
