The United States has launched airstrikes on the Islamic State (IS) stronghold in Sirte, Libya, the Pentagon said today (August 1, 2016), the first direct U.S. involvement in the fierce battle unfolding there and a significant expansion of the American campaign against the militant group, according to the Washington Post website.
In a statement, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that Libya's Western-backed government had requested U.S. air support, as forces under its command battle to reclaim the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte, which became an important Islamic State stronghold after militants seized it last year.
Fayez Serra, prime minister of Libya's Western-backed unity government, said he had requested the assistance to help the advance of local forces in Sirte against the Islamic State.
The use of American air power in Sirte opens a new chapter in the Obama administration's war against the Islamic State -- heretofore limited primarily to Iraq and Syria -- as IS now is attempting to establish a caliphate across a wide swath of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
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