For the first time since Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S
President, the United States military conducted airstrikes in Libya on
Friday night, the Pentagon announced Saturday.
The strikes coordinated by unmanned aircraft and signed off by
Donald Trump last week, killed 17 Islamic States militants and destroyed
three vehicles at the camp, located about 150 miles southeast of Sirte,
the US Africa Command which coordinates US troops in the region said.
The number of ISIS terrorists and their cells within Libya had
reduced significantly during the last two years following constant US
military intervention in the area, but the last few months, terrorists
had started having meetings and forming aggregates as a result of the
Libyan government's instability.
"In coordination with Libya's Government of National Accord and
aligned forces, U.S. forces conducted six precision airstrikes in Libya
against an ISIS desert camp on Friday,"
"The camp was used by ISIS to move fighters in and out of the
country; stockpile weapons and equipment; and to plot and conduct
attacks, ISIS operatives in Libya have been connected to multiple
attacks across Europe." The US Africa Command said in a later
statement.
"The United States will track and hunt these terrorists, degrade
their capabilities and disrupt their planning and operations by all
appropriate, lawful, and proportional means, including precision
strikes," Africa Command's later statement added.
The last US airstrike against Libyan ISIS operatives was carried out on January 19, the day before Trump was inaugurated.
ISIS took over Sirte in early 2015, turning it into its most
important base outside the Middle East and attracting large numbers of
foreign Daesh fighters to the city. The terrorist group imposed its
rule on residents and extended its control along about 155 miles (250
km) of Libya’s Mediterranean coastline.
But it struggled to keep a footing elsewhere in Libya and by last
December was forced out of Sirte after a six-month campaign led by
troops from the western city of Misrata and backed by US air strikes.
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