TRIPOLI, Libya: Libyan government forces have reported major gains against Islamic State militants in the coastal city of Sirte.
Our forces “have managed to control the internal security headquarters” in the city, Mohamed al-Ghosri, a spokesman for the government’s ongoing anti-IS campaign, told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
He said government forces have also advanced into neighborhood Number One, a major IS stronghold in the city.
“The fighting is accompanied by airstrikes against IS positions in neighborhood Number Three, another IS stronghold,” he added.
For weeks, forces aligned with the UN-backed unity government have been fighting IS militants in an effort to recapture Sirte, which was overrun by the terrorist group in 2015.
IS militants are now reportedly surrounded in Sirte’s central residential area.
Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli.
Late last year, Libya’s rival governments signed a UN-backed agreement to establish a unity government in an effort to resolve the country’s ongoing political standoff.
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