U.S. carried out air strikes against Islamic State-linked revolutionaries
in western Libya on Friday, killing as many as 40 people in an operation aiming
a suspect linked to two deadly attacks last year in neighboring Tunisia.
It was the second U.S. air strike in three months against
Islamic State in Libya, where the uncompromising Islamist militants have subjugated
years of disorder following Muammar Gaddafi's 2011 overthrow to build up a
presence on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Pentagon said it
had targeted an Islamic State training camp and killed a Tunisian militant
linked to major attacks on tourists in Tunisia.
Among those Washington said it targeted was Noureddine
Chouchane, a Tunisian accused by his native country for attacks last year on a
Tunis museum and the Sousse beach resort, which killed dozens of tourists.
"Obliteration of the camp and Chouchane's removal
will remove an experienced facilitator and is expected to have an immediate
impact on ISIL's ability to facilitate its activities in Libya, including employing
new ISIL members, establishing bases in Libya, and hypothetically planning
external attacks on U.S. interests in the region," the Pentagon said,
using an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
The mayor of the Libyan city of Sabratha, Hussein
al-Thwadi, told that the airplanes hit a building in the city's Qasr Talil
district, home too many foreigners. He said 41 people had been killed and six
wounded. The death toll could not instantaneously be confirmed with other
officials.
The White House said it
could not yet confirm the results of the air assault, but that it was committed
to fighting Islamic State.
"It's an indication that the president will not vacillate
to take these kinds of forceful, decisive actions," White House Spokesman
Josh Earnest said. Other U.S. officials said they believed it is highly likely
Chouchane is dead.
The strikes targeted a house in a residential district
west of the center, the municipal authorities said in a statement.
The house had been rented
to foreigners including Tunisians supposed of belonging to Islamic State, and
medium-caliber weapons including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades had
been found in the wreckage, the statement said.
Tunisian security sources have said they believe Tunisian
Islamic State fighters have been skilled in camps near Sabratha, which is close
to the Tunisian border. The air strikes came just days after a warning by
President Barack Obama that Washington intended to "take actions where
we've got a clear operation and a clear target in mind".
"And we are working with our alliance partners to
make sure that as we see opportunities to prevent ISIS from hollow out, in
Libya, we take them," Obama said on Tuesday.
Britain said it had authorized the use of its airbases to
launch the attack.
“I
welcome this strike that has taken out a Daesh training camp being used to
train terrorists to carry out attacks," Defence Secretary Michael Fallon
said in a statement.
Islamic State runs a self-styled caliphate across bands of
Iraq and Syria, where it has faced air strikes from a U.S.-led alliance since
2014.
Thwadi, the Sabratha mayor, believed some Tunisians, a
Jordanian and two women were among the dead, and several Tunisians who had
recently arrived in Sabratha were among toughies. He gave no further details.
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