While there are no US ground forces being used in connection with the latest strikes, Cook would not comment on whether American special operations forces are now in Libya.
Advertisement
The Obama administration has been negotiating for weeks with the Libyan government on how to use US airstrikes to support the limited capability of Libyan warplanes to hit targets in Sirte.
In his televised statement Mr Sarraj said the USA action was limited to Sirte and its immediate surroundings. The Libyan government asked for Monday’s strike in Sirte.
In November, a US strike killed Abu Nabil, another Islamic State leader.
The strikes mark the start of a more intense American role in the fight against Daesh in Libya, as the US steps in to assist the fragile, United Nations -backed government there.
“The first of these airstrikes has already kicked off on specific locations in Sirte, causing severe loses in the ranks of the enemy” Sarraj said.
Sirte, about 450 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli, is strategically important because it links Libya’s east and west.
Pro-government forces entered Sirte on June 9, reaching central and northern parts of the city.
According to Military Times, the USA amphibious assault ship Wasp, carrying an element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, is standing by in the vicinity of Libya, sources said. A militia set up to guard the country’s main oil facilities has also been advancing on ISIS.
Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) was the result of a UN-mediated deal signed in December to end a conflict between two rival governments and the armed groups that supported them, but it is having difficulty imposing its authority and winning backing from factions in the east.
Forces allied with Seraj have been battling Islamic State in Sirte – the home town of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi – since May.
The jihadist group seized control of the coastal city past year, raising fears that it was establishing an entry point into Europe as well as a fall-back position for its fighters as they came under pressure in Iraq and Syria.
Last February, the US carried out an aerial strike against an ISIS training camp in Libya.
Cook said at the time that the strikes “made it clear that we need to confront to ISIL wherever it rears its head”. The precision strikes targeted an ISIS tank and two vehicles, officials said.
USA warplanes targeted Islamist positions in and around the port city of Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast, which has been described by gleeful ISIS commanders as the gateway to Europe.
Advertisement
The strikes focused on the coastal city of Sirte.
