Italy would consider US request to use base in Libya strikes

Although there have been USA special operations forces on the ground in Libya for several months, US spotters did not call in the airstrikes, military officials said. “The first strikes started today in positions in Sirte, causing major casualties”.

Monday’s strike was the first in coordination with Libya’s unity government. This marked the third round of U.S strikes in Libya since the month of November.

Serraj said his government is joining the coalition against IS, adding, “This is the time for the global community to live up to its promises to the Libyan people.”.

Serraj noted that the strikes will not go beyond Sirte and its surroundings. The country has struggled since then and Obama said in an interview with The Atlantic magazine in April that the intervention “didn’t work”.

The airstrikes were authorized by US President Barack Obama on the recommendation of US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter. The initial US strikes on Monday targeted a tank and two vehicles in Sirte, where the ultra-hardline militants are encircled in the heart of what has become an important base for the group beyond its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Libyan commanders suspect militants have stored large quantities of arms and ammunition underground in Sirte, and Fakron said this was one target that US strikes could help destroy.

USA officials, who estimate that there are fewer than 1,000 Islamic State fighters in Sirte, say US warplanes could provide a decisive advantage to the attackers and help break the stalemate along the fighting fronts in the southern and western part of the city. They have been routinely moving in and out of the country, meeting with Libyan groups.

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.

“The biggest difference is that a specific request” came from Libya’s Government of National Accord, Cook said, and further strikes will involve “careful collaboration” with that government.

“These actions and those we have taken previously will help deny ISIL a safe haven in Libya from which it could attack the United States and our allies”, it added.

Western powers have offered to support the GNA in its efforts to tackle Islamic State, stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean and revive Libya’s oil production.

Libya slid into chaos after the ouster and killing of leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The U.N.in December brokered a deal that tried to mend the rift by creating a presidency council and a unity government.

Brigades mainly composed of militia from the western city of Misrata advanced on Sirte in May, but their progress was slowed by snipers, mines and booby-traps.