MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan forces said on Monday they were close to securing a final patch of land where Islamic State have been holding out in their former North African stronghold of Sirte, though there were reports of continuing skirmishes.
Islamic State took over Sirte in early 2015, setting up its most important base outside the Middle East and extending its control along about 250 km (150 miles) of Mediterranean coastline.
Forces led by brigades from the western city of Misrata launched a counter-attack against the jihadist group in May, and since Aug. 1 the United States has carried out at least 470 air strikes to support them.
Spokesman Rida Issa told Reuters that the Misrata-led forces “control all of Sirte’s Ghiza Bahriya neighbourhood and are still securing the area”.
The statement could not immediately be verified and there was no official announcement that Sirte had been taken. One field commander said there was still some fighting and Ghiza Bahriya was yet to be fully secured.
Earlier on Monday, 34 Islamic State fighters, including at least two senior commanders, had surrendered to Libyan forces in the Ghiza Bahriya district, officials said.
At least six women and four children had also left militant-held ground, said Mohamed Lajnef, a staff member at a field hospital outside Sirte.
Three of the Misrata-led forces were killed on Monday and 17 were wounded, he said.
Militants have been clinging on in a few dozen buildings in Ghiza Bahriya for weeks. In recent days, Libyan forces say dozens of women and children have escaped or been freed from the area.
RUINS
The presence of the families had been one of the factors complicating attempts to push forward into the final sliver of land held by Islamic State, and several women carried out suicide attacks as they were being granted safe passage.
Images issued by Misrata-led forces showed the bodies of Islamic State fighters laid out on the ground and veiled women, some carrying babies, emerging from the rubble. “In general all the women and children are hungry and dehydrated and some of them have burns,” Lajnef said.
The forces fighting in Sirte are nominally aligned with a U.N.-backed government that moved to Tripoli in March, part of international efforts to end the conflict and political turmoil that have plagued Libya since long time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011.
The chaos allowed Islamic State to gain a foothold in Libya from 2014, and to implant itself in Sirte, Gaddafi’s home city.
The loss of Sirte leaves the jihadist group without territorial control in Libya, though it retains an active presence in parts of the country. Libyan and Western officials fear that sleeper cells and militants who have fled Sirte could turn to an insurgent campaign.
Almost all of Sirte’s estimated population of 80,000 fled the city since Islamic State took over. Parts of Sirte have been left in ruins by recent fighting.
More than 700 fighters from the Misrata-led brigades have been killed in the campaign for Sirte, and more than 3,200 wounded, said Akram Gliwan, a spokesman at Misrata central hospital.
(Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
