Obama: Libya airstrikes critical to US security

The U.S. military said Monday it has begun launching airstrikes against Islamic State inside Libya, a further expansion of the campaign to defeat the militant group.

Italy’s foreign minister said Tuesday that his government will evaluate any US request to allow use of a Sicilian air base in the campaign of airstrikes against an Islamic State stronghold in Libya.

The U.S. launched a series of targeted air strikes at ISIS in Libya on Monday, opening a new front against the terrorist group that is expected to last for weeks, the Pentagon said.

Libyan government forces fire at ISIL positions on the outskirts of Sirte.

As of June 15 – the date of the most recent cost details released by the Pentagon – the military campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq has cost $8 billion.

“We have already seen, since we struck it just yesterday, GNA forces have moved into that neighborhood”, Davis said. “It is that kind of precision location, precision target, that we’ll be targeting that the GNA, at this point, felt like that would be a helpful… helpful support for their efforts”.

The central government, in a state of continued turmoil, has always been at the mercy of militias that hope to integrate and build a national army against the interim government.

The US-led airstrikes on Islamic State targets is a part of its on-going coalition against the foreign jihadist militants in the North African region and Europe.

And the attacks seem to augur extended involvement by the USA, with Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook telling reporters that defense officials had no clear timeline for United States military commitment.

The GNA’s press office said Tuesday that new strikes had occurred against IS positions in Sirte, destroying a rocket launcher and a vehicle.

Forces working under the auspices of the United Nations have been operating in Libya since last May in order to free Sirte from ISIS’s grip, after the deadly terror organization conquered the city a year ago.

Libya’s pro-government militias – mainly from the western city of Misrata – have been waging an offensive against the Islamic State group in Sirte since May, but it has recently stalled.

Dunford estimated in mid-July that there were only a few hundred militants still inside Sirte, which the Libyan group has used as its headquarters.

ISIS has been on the retreat in Iraq and Syria but has claimed credit for a surge in global attacks this year, a lot of them in France and Germany.