Although U.S. airstrikes are prominent in military campaigns in Iraq and Syria, U.S. aerial involvement in Libya, prior to Monday, was limited to a small number of targeted airstrikes.
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President Barrack Obama approved the strikes after the request of the Libyan government of National Accord to support forces trying to suppress ISIS in its main stronghold in Libya, the Pentagon added.
Cook added the GNA-aligned forces have managed recapturing territory from the ISIS militants around Sirte and now continuous airstrikes will enable the Libyan government to make a decisive and strategic advance.
U.S. planes have bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, responding to the UN-backed government’s request to help push the militants from their former stronghold of Sirte in what USA officials described as the start of a sustained campaign against the extremist group in the city.
The strikes, which US officials have forecast for months, are meant to help break an impasse between Libyan militias that have cornered ISIS fighters in a grinding urban battle in Sirte’s downtown.
He said the current numbers of ISIS fighters in Libya is estimated to be about 1,000, with possibly several hundred in Sirte. He denied the USA was leading from behind, describing the strikes as “providing military support for a partner on the ground”.
US officials said Marine Corps strike aircraft participated in the mission, flying from the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
The US has also launched strikes and raids against al-Qaida targets in the country since 2011, when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation conducted an air war against dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Aside from Iraq and Syria, ISIS’ presence in Libya “is probably the most developed and the most risky”, CIA Director John Brennan recently told Congress.
Mr Cook says, while Libya and the United States have similar goals when it comes to defeating IS, or ISIL, no USA forces were on the ground in connection with the operation.
He also said that the targets were chosen by the Tripoli Government. Almost 50 people died in that bombing, including two Serbian diplomats who had been abducted by Islamic State forces.
Around a thousand IS militants are thought to remain in Sirte.
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Monday’s airstrikes in Sirte follow one-off strikes in November and then in February, but those earlier attacks on ISIS leaders happened without a specific request from the fledgling GNA.
