Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government have advanced inside the terrorist stronghold of Sirte, they said on Tuesday, following the first US air strikes on Daesh positions in the city.

Fighters backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) seized the central district of Al Dollar after clashes that killed five of their members and wounded 17, they said on social media.

The Tripoli-based GNA launched an operation in May to retake Sirte, which the terrorists have controlled since June 2015.

The fall of the coastal city, located 450 kilometres east of Tripoli, would be a major blow to Daesh, which has also faced a series of setbacks in Syria and Iraq.

On Monday, GNA head Fayez Al Sarraj visited pro-government forces in Misrata, 190 kilometres to the northwest of Sirte, a statement said.

More than 300 pro-GNA fighters have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded since the beginning of the battle for Sirte, according to medical sources in Misrata.

The pro-GNA forces are mostly made up of militias from western Libya established during the 2011 revolt that overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Pro-government forces entered Sirte on June 9, reaching central and northern parts of the city. Daesh has hit back with suicide car bombs and sniper fire.

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 ouster and killing of Gaddafi, with rival authorities vying for control in the oil-rich country.

The GNA was the result of a UN-brokered power-sharing agreement struck in December, but it has yet to be endorsed by the elected parliament based in the country’s far east.

US planes bombed Daesh targets in Libya on Monday, responding to the government’s request to help push the militants from their former stronghold of Sirte in what US officials described as the start of a sustained campaign against the extremist group in the city.

“The first air strikes were carried out at specific locations in Sirte today causing severe losses to enemy ranks,” Prime Minster Fayez Al Sarraj said on state TV. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the strikes did not have “an end point at this particular moment in time”.

Forces allied with Al Sarraj have been battling Daesh in Sirte since May.

The militants seized the Mediterranean coastal city last year, making it their most important base outside Syria and Iraq. But they are now besieged in a few square kilometres of the centre, where they hold strategic sites, including the Ouagadougou conference hall, the central hospital and the university.

Al Sarraj said the Presidential Council of his Government of National Accord had decided to “activate” its participation in the international coalition against Daesh and “request the United States to carry out targeted air strikes on Daesh (Daesh).” The air strikes on Monday — which were authorised by US President Barack Obama — hit an Daesh tank and two vehicles that posed a threat to forces aligned with Libya’s GNA, Cook said.

In the future, each individual strike will be coordinated with the GNA and needs the approval of the commander of US

forces in Africa, Cook added.

This was the third US air strike against Daesh militants in Libya. But US officials said this one marked the start of a sustained air campaign rather than another isolated strike.

The last acknowledged US air strikes in Libya were on an Daesh training camp in the western city of Sabratha in February.

Although it does not include the use of ground troops beyond small special forces squads rotating in and out of Libya and drones collecting intelligence, the air campaign opens a new front in the war against Daesh and what American officials consider its most dangerous component outside Syria and Iraq

source : gulfnews