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U.S. Bombs ISIS Camps in Libya U.S. Bombs ISIS Camps in Libya
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Two United States Air Force B-2 bombers attacked Islamic State training camps outside of Surt, Libya, overnight, the Pentagon said on Thursday. WASHINGTON — Two United States Air Force B-2 bombers attacked Islamic State training camps in Libya overnight, killing more than 80 militants, including some who were involved in plotting terrorist attacks in Europe, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Military analysts were assessing the impact of the strikes, but officials said it was possible that dozens of Islamic State fighters may have been killed. The attack, which also included strikes by armed reaper drones flying from a base in Sicily, was a parting shot from President Obama at the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and one of his final actions as commander in chief.
The Pentagon’s Africa Command announced on Dec. 19 the official end of air operations against the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS or ISIL, in Surt, the group’s coastal stronghold, after conducting 495 strikes against truck bombs, heavy guns, tanks and command bunkers there. “We need to strike ISIL everywhere they show up,” Ashton B. Carter, the departing defense secretary, told reporters. “We know that some of the ISIL operatives in Libya were involved in plotting attacks in Europe.”
But the need to carry out additional strikes reflected the resilience of the Islamic State in Libya. While the group was driven out of Surt last month, the Islamic State still has several hundred fighters who have dispersed across Libya and pose a threat to the country, its neighbors and potentially Europe, according to American officials and the Africa Command. Islamic State fighters were driven out of Surt, the group’s coastal stronghold, last year by Libyan fighters backed by American air power. After conducting 495 strikes against truck bombs, heavy guns, tanks and command bunkers in the city, the Pentagon’s Africa Command announced an end to air operations on Dec. 19.
Jonathan Winer, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Libya, told Congress in November that the Islamic State, as it suffered defeats in Surt at the hands of Libyan fighters and American warplanes, was most likely forming cells around the country. He called on Libyans to unite behind the country’s fledgling Government of National Accord to combat the terrorists. But the taking of Surt did not put an end to Islamic State operations in Libya. The militant group is believed to have several hundred fighters in the country. Many of them began to regroup at two training camps about 25 miles southwest of Surt, officials said. Mr. Obama approved airstrikes against the camps this week.
“We had 100 terrorists training,” said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. “That was a risk we could not accept.”
To buttress its assertions, the Pentagon released surveillance video of the militants at one of the camps unloading rocket-propelled grenades and shells from a truck.
The B-2 bombers dropped more than 100 satellite-guided bombs and were chosen in part for their ability to loiter over the target area, Pentagon officials say.
The Pentagon did not say whether any of the plots it said were being hatched at the camps were imminent, whether senior Islamic State commanders were among the targets, or if Libyan fighters supported by the United States moved in on the ground after the strikes were carried out.
Jonathan Winer, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Libya, told Congress in November that the Islamic State, as it suffered defeats in Surt, was most likely forming cells elsewhere in the country. He called on Libyans to unite behind the country’s fledgling Government of National Accord to combat the terrorists.
A recent analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a policy organization in Washington, found that Islamic State militants operating as “desert brigades” south of Surt had ambushed Libyan military positions, disrupted supply lines with explosives and established checkpoints on key roads. The Islamic State is recruiting foreign fighters into southern Libya and is most likely relying on the same havens used by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, according to the analysis.A recent analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a policy organization in Washington, found that Islamic State militants operating as “desert brigades” south of Surt had ambushed Libyan military positions, disrupted supply lines with explosives and established checkpoints on key roads. The Islamic State is recruiting foreign fighters into southern Libya and is most likely relying on the same havens used by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, according to the analysis.
The two B-2 bombers flew a round-trip mission of about 34 hours from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and dropped satellite-guided bombs on the training camps, military officials said. Mr. Carter, at a Pentagon news conference, suggested that the Islamic State would continue to have a foothold in Libya as long as the country was racked by internal strife.
“As long as the conditions of civil war are there, the Libyans don’t have the unity,” Mr. Carter said. “If they did, I think they themselves could make short work of ISIL.”
The two B-2 bombers flew a round-trip mission of about 34 hours from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, military officials said. It was the first time that a B-2 had been used in combat since March 2011, when three B-2s carried out airstrikes in Libya.