Forces loyal to Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) said Saturday they have launched a new attack on diehards of Daesh in the coastal city of Sirte.
Backed by weeks of US airstrikes, the pro-GNA forces have recaptured nearly all of what had been the extremists’ main stronghold.
The city’s fall would be a huge setback to Daesh’s efforts to expand its self-proclaimed “caliphate” beyond Syria and Iraq where the radicals have also suffered losses.
“The fighting has begun. We are attacking the last Daesh positions in district three” where the radicals are cornered, a GNA fighter told AFP.
The GNA forces media center confirmed on Facebook that the new push had begun to retake Sirte, located 450 km east of the capital Tripoli.
“Our forces are advancing inside the areas where Daesh is, in district three, and so far have taken control of” two banks and a hotel, the media center said. It also said they had thwarted a suicide bombing.
One pro-government fighter had been killed, the Misrata hospital’s Facebook page said. An AFP journalist saw ambulances leaving Sirte — hometown of dead dictator Muammar Qaddafi — for Misrata to the west.
Since the offensive against Sirte began on May 12, more than 400 fighters loyal to the government have been killed and around 2,500 wounded. The GNA media center said the bodies of 10 radicals had been found.

Source: Arab News