Libyan forces take Sirte convention center from Islamic State

The militia fighters, who are mainly from the nearby city of Misrata, launched their offensive against IS in June.

In a related context, other sides try to compare the USA help to the French intervention in Libya by supporting the army under the leadership of General Khalifa Hafter in Benghazi.

While U.S. jets and drones are pounding Islamic State in the Libyan city of Sirte, Western powers are unlikely to expand their military involvement rapidly, anxious to avoid exacerbating factional divisions as the government they support struggles to establish itself.

The Libyan forces were assisted by USA special operations personnel, who have been inching closer to the front line of the battle for Sirte, a longtime ISIS stronghold in the north African country.

“As long as they keep this low profile … the risks both for the U.S. and for the Libyan government are quite low”, he stated.

Reuters reported that the United States is still helping the GNA forces to ease the crossings of the Libyan ground forces by targeting tanks, armed trucks and fighting positions in the slowly shrinking area of Sirte, where the IS remains.

And US Special Operations troops have been spotted on the ground in Sirte.

The operations center said they had liberated a hospital and a university, killing around 20 jihadists.

Inside Story – Can US air strikes push ISIL out of Libya?

Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast, is IS’s most significant stronghold in Libya. She did not disclose an estimate on the number of US forces.

Libya’s oil sector, the country’s main source of income, is managed by the National Oil Company which is split into two rival branches – each loyal to Libya’s two rival governments.

Also this week, US and British personnel, carrying radios and wearing black body armor and tan fatigues, were seen within Sirte, according to officers allied with the Libyan government and Western security personnel in the area.

National Oil Corporation in Tripoli also seemed anxious, in a statement issued on Sunday, over possible conflict between Libyan National Army and Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) at Zwetina oil port.

The US, France, UK and several Western countries have thrown their support behind the GNA, tasked with repairing war-torn Libya.