The United States’ Africa Command (Africom) reported that it had conducted its 99th airstrike against IS in the Libyan city of Sirte since operations began on 1 August this year.In its latest report released yesterday (Tuesday in the US), Africom revealed that as part of its Operation Odyssey Lightning it had struck seven main sets of targets in Sirte on Monday 29th August.
These included IS fighting positions and Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device:
The latest US revelations of airstrikes in Sirte against IS come as the Presidency Council/Government of National Accord-affiliated (PC/GNA) Bunyan Marsous forces continue to battle the remnants of IS in Sirte.
Yesterday, Faeiz Serraj, head of the PC/GNA flew into Sirte and visited the Ougadougou Centre, until recently IS’s headquarters. Serraj, along with other PC members, including his deputy Ahmed Maetig, from Misrata, spoke to senior commanders.
The IS terrorists have now been pushed back to their very last position which is in Sirte’s Third District. Though there is an eagerness to finish off a four-month fight that has cost more than 400 largely Misratan dead and 2,500 wounded, there is a reluctance to take more casualties in what is clearly the final stage of a now uneven battle.
The assumption is that IS is running out of fighters and ammunition, and becoming militarily weaker. Yet Sunday’s suicide car bombing in which 35 were killed and dozens injured demonstrated the danger of a desperate enemy that has little inclination to surrender.