American F-15E fighter-bombers struck a Daesh training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border Friday, killing dozens, probably including an Daesh operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia previous year, United States and local officials have said. “But that will always remain an unknown fact to us”, the Associated Press reported.
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The Pentagon says it had “no information” that there were Serbs or any other civilians present at the airstrike, and reiterated that they believed the people at the camp were plotting against “Western interests in the region”.
Whatever the pretext for the strike, Libya’s recognized government didn’t take too kindly to it, saying the USA launched the attack without any advanced coordination with them, and that it amounted to a violation of Libyan sovereignty.
He said there may have been no communication between Libyan and USA security services in organising the attack and on whether the Americans were informed that the hostages were in the base. The group’s posting did not indicate when the bodies would be flown to Serbia or whether officials in the Tripoli government were in contact with Belgrade.
The oil-rich North African country has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the internationally recognised government fled Tripoli after Fajr Libya overran the capital.
Serbian ambassador Oliver Potezica, who escaped unharmed and was traveling in the three-vehicle convoy with his wife and two sons aged 8 and 14, later recounted the attack.
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Against this background there has been icnreasing discussion of the need to step up the military campaignagainst Isis in Libya with President Obama ready to make a greater commitment as long as the Libyan national unity government starts to function and so long as allies such as Frane, Italy and the United Kingdom play their part, the New york Times said.(ANSAmed). UN-brokered efforts to form a unity government continue to falter.
