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WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon said on Monday it conducted air strikes targeting Islamic State (IS) in Libya at the request of Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA).
While U.S. military conducted air strikes against IS targets in Libya in the past, it was the first time the GNA had officially requested U.S. air strikes. According to Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, the U.S. air strikes in Sirte, a city on Libya's Mediterranean coast, were authorized by U.S. President Barack Obama.
"GNA-aligned forces have had success in recapturing territory from ISIL thus far around Sirte, and additional U.S. strikes will continue to target ISIL in Sirte in order to enable the GNA to make a decisive, strategic advance," said Cook in a statement, using an acronym for the IS group.
Despite the expansion of IS' influence in Libya, the U.S. military had so far publicly admitted to a couple of airstrikes against IS targets inside Libya, compared to its daily air raids against the group in Syria and Iraq, according to examinations of the Pentagon's previous statements.
Pentagon's first ever target-killing of IS operatives happened last November. The target was Abu Nabil, also known as Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi national who was a longtime al-Qaida operative and the senior IS leader in Libya.
The Pentagon carried out its second airstrike in Libya in February, killing about 40 IS recruits in a training camp near Sabratha.
Commander of U.S. Africa Command David Rodriguez said in April the IS had doubled its presence inside Libya.
"In Libya, the U.S. intelligence community has said it's around 4 (thousand) to 6,000. It is probably about doubled in the last 12 to 18 months based on what their assessments were last year," Rodriguez said at a Pentagon briefing.
