Control of Sirte is ‘hours away’

ISIL fighting its last battle in Libya, says spokesman

CAIRO // A Libyan official said full control of ISIL’s last major bastion in the country was just hours away yesterday , a day after at least 38 Libyan fighters were killed in ISIL suicide bombings.

“It was fierce yesterday. After nearly 100 days of the battles, ISIL is now fighting its last battle,” said Reda Issa, a media official with the anti-ISIL operation. “Full control over Sirte is hours from now.” Akram Gliwan, a spokesman for a hospital in the nearby city of Misurata, said the dead and wounded from the fighting in Sirte had flooded in over the past 24 hours.

He said at least 185 people had been wounded, with 20 in critical condition.

Issa said the extremist group had set off 12 suicide car bombs on Sunday, with three hitting their targets.

Five of the bombs were destroyed by air strikes, and the others were foiled by ground forces. He said the militants were now cornered in two neighbourhoods.

The anti-ISIL forces – who are mostly from Misurata – support a United Nations-brokered government based in Tripoli.

They have driven ISIL out of most of Sirte over the last two months with help from US airstrikes. Pictures on the Facebook page of the anti-ISIL operation over the past week have shown sacks of cash, jewellery, mobile phones and other personal belongings of ISIL members who either fled or were killed. ISIL and other extremist groups gained a foothold in Libya during the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

The country has been split between rival administrations, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes.

Western nations view the newly formed UN- brokered government as the best hope for uniting the country, but Libya’s parliament, which meets in the far east, has refused to accept it.