The capture of Sirte would be a major setback for Islamic State,
ousting the jihadist group from the only city in Libya where it
established total control.
Libyan
forces allied with the U.N.-backed government take position as they
battle with IS fighters to capture university buildings in Sirte, Libya,
August 10, 2016. Picture taken August 10, 2016.
Libyan forces engaged in renewed
clashes with Islamic State militants in Sirte on Thursday, a day after
capturing a convention complex that had been a symbol of the militant
group's authority in the city.
Forces aligned with
Libya's U.N.-backed government seized the Ouagadougou convention centre
and several other key sites on Wednesday, advancing into areas that had
been fought over for weeks.
Those forces,
supported since Aug. 1 by U.S. air strikes, said in a statement that
they had taken Islamic State's "most important bastions" in its former
North African stronghold.
But they have yet to
gain control of several neighbourhoods in central Sirte. On Thursday,
fighters advancing on a hotel and guest houses near Sirte's port
exchanged sporadic fire with militants, said Rida Issa, a spokesman for
the Sirte operation.
The forces said they had
"made incursions" into Areas 1 and 3, two of the districts still
occupied by militants, and that they had "dealt with a number of snipers
hidden in a corner of the Ouagadougou hall complex ... they were
eliminated."
The gains come after weeks of
house-to-house fighting in residential areas, with sniper fire, trip
wires and landmines slowing the advance.
The
fighters are led by brigades from nearby Misrata, who repelled an
Islamic State advance south of their city in early May before pushing
eastwards to Sirte and besieging the militants in the centre of the
Mediterranean city.
The capture of Sirte would be a
major setback for Islamic State, ousting the jihadist group from the
only city in Libya where it established total control.
It
could also boost the fortunes of the U.N.-backed Government of National
Accord (GNA), which has been struggling to impose its influence on a
country riven by political and armed rivalries.
In
an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday,
before the latest advances, GNA Prime Minister Fayez Seraj said he
believed the defeat of Islamic State in Sirte would "not take too much
time. Probably not months, just a few weeks".
After
Wednesday's advances, brigade fighters found a house used as a
laboratory for making explosive belts and seized a number of military
vehicles used by Islamic State, some damaged and some in good condition,
said Issa, the spokesman.
"Military engineering units are now working to clear the captured areas of mines," he added.
U.S.
Africa Command said it carried out seven strikes in Sirte on Wednesday,
targeting trucks mounted with heavy artillery, fighting positions, a
vehicle-borne improvised explosive device and two supply trucks. U.S.
drones and fighter jets have carried out 36 strikes over Sirte since
Aug. 1.
Eighteen GNA-aligned fighters were killed
on Wednesday and 72 wounded, Issa said. Among the dead was Mokhtar
Fakron, a senior air force commander who was killed with another pilot
when their jet came down over Sirte.
From an
estimated fighting force of some 6,000 men, more than 350 brigade
fighters have been killed and at least 1,500 wounded since the campaign
to recapture Sirte began.
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