Airstrikes hit terror camps

U.S. targeted sites in Libya

Washington — The U.S. military conducted two strikes against Islamic State and al-Qaida terrorist targets in the waning hours of the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The more robust attack occurred against two terrorist training camps in Libya. Two Air Force B-2 stealth bombers were among the aircraft that dropped more than 100 bombs southwest of Sirte, Libya. The attacks on Wednesday night killed more than 80 militants from the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters.

The militants had been forced from the coastal city of Sirte, and some had been engaged in plotting attacks in Europe, Carter said.

“These are critically important strikes for our campaign,” Carter said.

The other attack killed an al-Qaeda leader who had been connected to terrorist plots against Western targets, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.

Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi, an al-Qaida external operations leader, was killed near Idlib, Syria, on Tuesday in what Cook called a precision airstrike. A Tunisian, Boussadoun had ties to extremists in the Middle East and Europe. His death deprives al-Qaida of a veteran leader with experience mounting attacks abroad, Cook said.

The Libyan airstrikes were notable for their size, scope and the rare use of one of the Pentagon’s most sophisticated warplanes to conduct it. The last time B-2 bombers were used in combat was in the opening phase of the U.S.-led attacks in 2011 that forced Moammar Gadhafi from power.

Because there are only about 20 in the Air Force inventory and expensive to fly, B-2s are used primarily to penetrate enemy territory protected by sophisticated air defenses. That was probably not the case in Libya where a civil war has raged for years, and the provisional government invited the U.S. attack. The mission also required a 30hour round-trip flight from their base in Missouri.

At the Pentagon, Cook showed reporters highquality video footage, taken from spy aircraft, that showed militants moving rocket-propelled grenades and other munitions from pickup trucks.

Asked why the B-2 was used when the military has other warplanes in the region, Cook replied that it was the choice of commanders in the field.

Carter told reporters that the Islamic State had formed “little nests” from Libya to Afghanistan and needs to be struck “everywhere they show up.”