Sirte has become an ISIS stronghold since the militants seized it a year ago.
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The United States has carried out air strikes on positions of so-called Islamic State in Libya, following a request by the UN-backed government there, the Pentagon says. They have been struck by US warplanes in support of local ground forces in both countries.
Airstrikes are backing Libyan forces seeking to retake city of Sirte from ISIL. One of the targets was a tank, Cook said.
The U.S. launched a new campaign of airstrikes Monday aimed at dislodging ISIS from its stronghold in Libya.
Officials said Barack Obama authorised the strike.
Without mentioning any future USA military plans in Libya, Dunford said that “whatever actions we conduct”, aside from those meant to eliminate an Islamic State threat to the USA homeland, “are going to be in conjunction with” the U.N.-backed government.
These new developments follow months of discreet ground operations, as small teams of U.S. special operations troops have moved in and out of Libya, making contact with rebel factions and gathering intelligence about the political and military situations there.
But that coordination will be a challenge, experts said.
The accord covers “specific” technical issues, such as informing the Libyan side in advance of the time and location of US strikes. “It’s not the sort of conventional military operation we would think of where there’s a central point of contact”.
The strikes focused on the coastal city of Sirte. “At least 350 of their fighters have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded in the campaign”, Reuters reports. The power and security vacuum left the country a breeding ground for militias and militants, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliates. But it is having difficulty imposing its authority and winning backing from factions in the east.
The more current events-savvy segments of the voting population will surely remember that the only reason US planes need to bomb ISIS forces in Libya in the first place is because Hillary Clinton’s disastrous post-intervention planning nearly single-handedly turned the once-stable country into a terrorist theme park. The Libyan government asked for Monday’s strike in Sirte.
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In a possible attempt to shore up the Democratic Party’s anti-terror credentials – and by association, Hillary Clinton’s – Obama has apparently ordered fresh airstrikes against ISIS in Libya.
