Italy’s foreign minister says his government will evaluate any US request to allow use of a Sicilian air base in the campaign of airstrikes against an Islamic State stronghold in Libya.
Advertisement
The United States conducted airstrikes on Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) targets as forces loyal to Libya’s unity government advanced on the terror group’s stronghold at Sirte on August 1.
“We have a range of capabilities at various locations in the region that will allow us to carry out these airstrikes”, Balzanza said.
President Barack Obama defended a two-day-old U.S. air campaign against the Islamic State group in its Libyan stronghold of Sirte, saying defeating the Islamist militants there was in the USA national interest.
Prime Minister Fayez Seraj said, “The presidency council, as the general army commander, has made a request for direct USA support to carry out specific air strikes”.
“I think that all of us collectively were not sufficiently attentive to what had to happen the day after and the day after and the day after that in order to ensure that there were strong structures in place to assure basic security and peace inside of Libya”, he said.
A spokesman for the US Pentagon, Peter Cook, says the strikes hit precision targets.
Mr Obama authorised them following recommendations from Ash Carter, the Defence Secretary, and General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The first US strike occurred in November.
Efforts to retake Sirte have bogged down in recent weeks, and the US will provide additional airstrikes to oust ISIS from the city, the statement said. “This is a chance for us to help them get across the finish line”, Davis said.
In his televised statement, Mr Sarraj said the USA action was limited to Sirte and its immediate surroundings.
According to the BBC, western officials had previously estimated the number of Daesh militants in Libya at around 6,000. In February, American F-15E fighter-bombers struck a DAESH training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border, killing more than 40. He expected the US airstrikes there would continue “for weeks, not months”.
According to medical sources reports, around 280 pro-government fighters are killed and more than 1,500 were injured in the conflict.
Advertisement
Last week, Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, told reporters that five USA commandos had been wounded while helping Afghan forces clear Islamic State fighters from villages in the south of that country.
