Tripoli: Libyan forces battling to oust Daesh from Sirte said they captured its university complex on Wednesday but lost one of their warplanes over the city.
Rida Eisa, a spokesman for the forces, said it was not clear how the plane crashed. Daesh said it had shot down the jet, killing the pilot, according to a statement on a website close to the terrorist group.
Forces aligned with Libya’s UN-backed government launched their campaign for Sirte in May. On Aug. 1, the United States began air strikes to help them advance against militants encircled in the centre of the Mediterranean coastal city.
US drones and fighter jets have carried out a total of 29 strikes since then, targeting several IS emplacements on Monday and a gun-mounted pick-up truck on Tuesday, according to statements by US Africa Command.
Libyan fighter jets have also been flying regular missions over Sirte, the hometown of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, whose fall in an 2011 uprising precipitated years of factional anarchy in the oil-exporting North African country.
The UN-backed government arrived in Tripoli in March, but has struggled to impose its authority and faces continuing resistance from armed factions that control eastern Libya.
On the ground in Sirte, Libyan forces led by brigades from the city of Misrata have suffered heavy casualties from Daesh mines and sniper fire. Clashes have been sporadic, with heavier fighting interspersed with lulls that last for several days.
“Our forces are making progress in their attack against Daesh and have recaptured the University of Sirte,” Eisa said. They had also advanced to a cluster of unfinished buildings used by Daesh snipers just west of the centre of Sirte, he said.
The latest clashes came after the government-backed fighters reached a hotel complex southeast of the recently captured Dollar neighbourhood on Monday.
Libyan militants returning from combat in Syria’s civil war helped implant Daesh in Libya in 2014, but Daesh has struggled to win support or hold territory as most local people regard it as a malign import dependent on foreign fighters.
