U.S. ramps up role in battling ISIS in Libya

Special forces supporting local troops in Sirte

U.S. special operations forces are providing direct, on-the-ground support for the first time to forces battling the Islamic State in Libya, U.S. and Libyan officials said, coordinating American airstrikes and providing intelligence information to local forces battling to oust the group from a militant stronghold.

The positioning of a small number of elite U.S. personnel, operating alongside British troops, in the coastal city of Sirte deepens the involvement of Western nations in the fight against the Islamic State’s most powerful affiliate.

U.S. and British personnel, carrying radios and wearing black body armor and tan fatigues, were seen within Sirte several days this week, according to officers allied with the Libyan government and Western security personnel in the area. U.S. officials said U.S. troops were operating out of a joint operations center on the city’s outskirts and that their role was limited to supporting forces loyal to the country’s fragile unity government.

Robyn Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command, said small numbers of U.S. military personnel would continue to go in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces but declined to provide details.

An expanded on-theground role for Western nations follows the Obama administration’s decision earlier this month to begin regular airstrikes on ISIS positions in Sirte, the group’s de facto capital in North Africa. Since the strikes began about a week ago, U.S. planes have struck almost 30 militant targets.

The increased U.S. air campaign against ISIS to Libya underscores the stakes in a battle against a group that has vowed to strike the West and has attracted recruits from across Africa and the Middle East. Since they appeared in Libya in 2014, fighters allied with ISIS have displayed tactics similar to their parent group in Syria and Iraq: beheading non-Muslims, attacking local security forces and facilities associated with Westerners, forcing locals to abide by their harsh interpretation of Islam.

The new U.S. operation in Sirte is the culmination of an extended, low-visibility mission in Libya by American special operators, who established small outposts as part of an effort to build ties with friendly forces and increase American understanding of the complexities of political and militia factions.