Backed Libyan militias take over ISIS headquarters in Sirte

US -backed Libyan militias say they have taken over the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Sirte, the militants’ final bastion in Libya.

“The Ouagadougou centre is in our hands”, said a statement from the operations centre of the forces deployed by the Government of National Accord, an internationally recognised administration leading the battle for Sirte.

Since Aug. 1, USA warplanes have carried out a series of airstrikes targeting IS positions in Sirte. Recent reports indicate elite US forces have been calling in airstrikes in support of troops backed by Libya’s United Nations -backed Government of National Accord.

Libyan fighter jets have also been flying regular missions over Sirte, the home town of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, whose fall in an uprising in 2011 precipitated years of factional anarchy. Their advance slowed as they approached the centre of Sirte, and the forces, led by brigades from the city of Misrata, have suffered heavy casualties from IS landmines and snipers.

The forces launched the offensive to retake Sirte on May 12.

The forces fighting ISIS in Sirte are under the command of Serraj’s government.

Libyan fighters were seen advancing towards a hotel and guest houses near the city’s port and they were involved in intermittent firing with IS, Rida Issa, a spokesman for Sirte operation told Reuters.

Beside the convention center, he also confirmed that the forces captured Sirte’s hospital and university complex from IS who have been recording combat losses to forces allied to the internationally recognized government based in Tripoli.

American Special Operations troops have, for the first time, started directly supporting Libyan forces battling the Islamic State (IS) group in their key stronghold of Sirte, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Earlier this year, US defense officials estimated that there were as many as 6,000 ISIS fighters in Libya, crowded around Sirte, which sits on the country’s Mediterranean coast.

“The speed of the Libyan forces’ advancement from now [on] will be accelerating”, he said.

It was unclear how many Daesh militants were killed, but the centre said that at least 20 extremists had died in fighting for the university campus. “We do not need foreign troops on Libyan soil”, Mr Fayez al-Sarraj said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily.

A rival government in Libya’s east, which is also fighting Islamic State, now contests the authority of the internationally backed government in Tripoli.