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| Africa North |
| U.S. Special Forces take the fight to ISIS in Libya |
| 2016-05-19 |
| [CNN] Misrata, Libya. It is a tiny, remote aircraft hangar, carved in the Sicilian rock decades ago, but now home to a new and vital front for the United States against ISIS. U.S. Special Forces and surveillance flights are 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. Surveillance flights over the country's 2,000-kilometer (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 they are in evidence near the city of Misrata, with an estimated dozen soldiers operating out of a base near the city. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #2 Nice, but I think they are referring to the island of Pantelleria, a Sicilian island in the Strait of Sicily. I ran out of time, but I am guessing that due to its location and size it was used in WWII as an airbase, using the island's natural formation to create hangers for protection against enemy attacks, being fairly close to British Malta and in the historic invasion routes between Sicily/(Now Libya) and the East/West Mediterranean. I had not heard of it, not that I am an expert of the region, but wiki says fresh water is an issue on an otherwise fertile soil (volcanic) so I wonder if the island was always just a gimmie during wars or if a lack of a decent harbor reduced its military importance until the age of the airplane. Pantelleria looks to be about 200 miles from Misrata, and quite close to Tripoli. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2016-05-19 12:23 |
| #1 "Sicilian rock"?? I wonder if siliceous (rock with a large portion of silica) is meant? |
| Posted by: Flilet and Tenille1671 2016-05-19 07:55 |