Forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed government said Monday they had seized full control of Sirte from the Daesh group, in a major blow to the militants who battled for months to retain their bastion.

The battle for the coastal city, which was the last significant territory held by Daesh in Libya, cost the lives of hundreds of loyalist troops as well as an unknown number of Daesh fighters. “Our forces have total control of Sirte,” Reda Issa, a spokesman for pro-government forces, told AFP. “Our forces saw Daesh totally collapse.”
Forces allied with the country’s unity government launched an offensive to retake the city on May 12, quickly seizing large areas of the city and cornering the terrorists. But Daesh put up fierce resistance with suicide car bombings, snipers and improvised explosive devices.
“Daesh has totally collapsed and dozens of them have given themselves up to our forces,” said a statement on the loyalist forces’ official Facebook page. The capture of Sirte boosts the authority of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which was launched in Tripoli last March but whose legitimacy is contested by a rival administration based in eastern Libya.
The United States started a bombing campaign in August at the request of the GNA to help local forces recapture the city, seized by terrorists in June 2015.
As of December 1, US warplanes, drones and helicopters had conducted 470 strikes.
The fall of Sirte — Qaddafi’s hometown located 450 km east of Tripoli — represents a major setback for Daesh, which has also faced a series of military defeats in Syria and Iraq.
“Losing it (Sirte) could cause a momentary loss of traction, but a lot will depend on what happens in Syria and Iraq and whether the ungoverned spaces in Libya will remain such,” said Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council of Foreign Relations.
Toaldo said the militant’s failure to hold Sirte was due in part to the group’s lack of resources in Libya.
“They didn’t manage to seize any considerable source of revenue,” he said. “What they found in the banks in Sirte was not comparable to what they found in Mosul, nor was there an equivalent weapons stockpile.”
Claudia Gazzini, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said that militants who escaped from Sirte had likely moved south to Sebha, closer to Libya’s borders with Algeria and Niger.

Source: Arab News