“Indeed, the first air strikes were carried out in Sirte today, on specific locations in Sirte, causing severe losses to enemy ranks”.
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The air assault marks the start of a more forceful American role in the battle against ISIS in Libya, as the US steps in to help the fragile, UN-installed government.
Last February, the US carried out an aerial strike against an ISIS training camp in Libya.
Additional airstrikes will continue as forces aligned with the Libyan Government of National Accord continues to take ground from ISIL, Cook said.
His warning comes after several French commandos were killed fighting Islamic State militants.
The United Nations-backed government of Libya had requested the action.
Cook said the strikes were approved by President Obama upon the recommendation of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US secretary of defense.
The decision to launch the strikes came after a request by the newly formed Libyan Government of National Accord.
The strikes send a “very strong message not only against terrorism, but also for the stabilization of Libya”, Gentiloni said.
“We don’t envision this as something that’s going to be too long”, Davis said, noting that GNA forces had already done much to dislodge IS fighters from Sirte.
He said a small number of USA forces are in Libya working out of an air operations center to help assess and validate targeting information that the Libyans are giving to the Americans. They have been routinely moving in and out of the country, meeting with Libyan groups.
Western powers have become increasingly concerned at IS’s presence in conflict-wracked Libya, where the chaos has left the North African country vulnerable to an influx of IS fighters, many from Syria.
In recent months, the Islamic State group has been suffering significant causalities.
President Barack Obama will travel to the Pentagon Thursday for a meeting on the fight against the Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.
On July 18 Dunford said he was he was encouraged by developments against the Islamic State in Libya, noting it has been severely weakened.
On Tuesday, two US airstrikes targeted an ISIS rocket launcher and an excavator vehicle.
The Islamic State group seized the coastal city of Sirte, the hometown of Gaddafi, last year, making it their most important base outside Syria and Iraq.
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Libya has been in a state of civil unrest since May 2014.
