More than 80 Islamic State (IS) jihadists were killed in U.S. strikes on training camps in Libya, including several who were involved in plotting attacks in Europe, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said on Thursday. “They certainly are people who were actively plotting operations in Europe and may also have been connected to some attacks that have already occurred in Europe,” Mr. Carter said on his last day in office.
Defence officials said on Thursday that U.S. B-2 bombers carried out air strikes against IS camps outside the group’s former North African stronghold of Sirte in Libya, killing dozens of militants.
Two U.S. defence officials said the strikes were carried out late on Wednesday 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Sirte against two camps.
They were done in cooperation with Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and no women or children were in the camps, the officials said.
Libyan forces backed by U.S. air strikes finished clearing the last IS holdout in Sirte in early December after a battle of nearly seven months. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, in a statement on Thursday, confirmed the U.S. military conducted strikes.
Also, the IS killed 12 people it held captive in Syria’s ancient Palmyra by shooting and beheading them, with some of the slayings carried out in the city’s second-century Roman amphitheatre, activists said on Thursday.
IS had recaptured the city in December from government troops, nine months after it was expelled in a Russia-backed offensive and while Syrian government forces were focused on retaking the eastern half of Aleppo from rebels. — Reuters, AP
