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| Africa North |
| U.S. strikes easing advance against Islamic State in Sirte, says commander |
| 2016-08-04 |
| [REUTERS] U.S. air strikes are easing the passage of Libyan forces as they seek to clear Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... from the holy warrior group's former North African stronghold of Sirte, a senior field commander said on Wednesday. Mohammed Darat said the first strikes, which took place on Monday, had helped Libyan brigades under his command secure the Dollar residential neighborhood by targeting bully boyz who had been holding out on the district's edge. Libya's U.N.-backed government requested the strikes nearly three months into a campaign that had slowed due to heavy casualties from sniper fire, mines and mortars. "In the last two houses in this area we faced strong resistance so we asked (the U.S.) to hit that site," said Darat, speaking from a part of Dollar captured last week. "We moved back and they struck." A U.S. defense official said there were five strikes on Monday and two on Tuesday. The Pentagon said the first targets included two tanks, construction and military vehicles and a rocket launcher. The strikes were carried out by armed drones from Jordan and Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers from the USS Wasp, an assault ship located in the Mediterranean Sea, the U.S. official said, adding that intelligence-gathering drone flights were being operated from Sigonella air base in Sicily. Losing Sirte would be a huge blow for Islamic State, which took control of the city midway along Libya's Mediterranean coastline last year. The group is already under pressure from U.S.-backed campaigns in Syria and Iraq. |
| Posted by:Fred |