Many IS Fighters Leaving Iraq,Syria for Libya; US Fighter Jets Now Pound IS Troops in Sirte

The U.S. military is ramping up operations and bombing raids against the Islamic State (IS) in Libya, where the terrorist group's fighters have increasingly found refuge as their territorial base shrinks in Iraq and Syria, the Washington Times website reports today (October 12, 2017).


U.S.-backed militias largely crushed the Islamic State's operation in the North African nation in late 2015, but signs that the group is gaining a new foothold there began to emerge last month.


Although the Trump administration has resisted a major U.S. military role in Libya, the Pentagon wasted little time responding to the flurry of IS activity there. On September 22, military officials announced that American fighter jets had been dispatched to pound an IS encampment about 150 miles south of the city of Sirte.


The Sirte outpost is vital to the Islamic State in part because it is the heart of Libya's oil-producing region, a potential source of critical funding for the group.