US Special Ground Forces Fighting ISIS in Libya; ISIS Now Controls a Tenth of Libyan Med. Coast

U.S. Special Forces and surveillance flights are now operating on the ground and over Libya, as the West moves to boost security operations in the country to bolster Libya's increasingly desperate fight against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), the CNN website reports today (May 20, 2016).

Surveillance flights over the country's 1,240-mile coast have been in operation from the remote Sicilian island of Pantelleria for over a year, and Special Forces have recently increased their presence on the ground.

Witnesses and Libyan officials told CNN the Special Forces are in evidence near the city of Misrata, with a dozen or more soldiers operating out of a base near the city.

It is unclear what precisely the U.S. Special Forces' scope of operations is in Libya -- the U.S. government remains secretive on the mission -- as airstrikes and other attacks have been limited. But they join an increasingly fraught Libyan battle against ISIS, which has seized more territory in recent months and is now estimated to control a tenth of Libya's Mediterranean coastline.