The Pentagon has confirmed more airstrikes against the Libyan city of Sirte today, as the “unity government” claims to have gained ground in the ISIS-held city. The US began launching airstrikes against Sirte on August 1.
AFRICOM says they have carried out 48 airstrikes against Sirte since this new war began, and while officially the Obama Administration has presented the matter to Congress as a 30-day campaign, officials have repeatedly conceded that there is no exit strategy in place, and no expectation that this is anything other than another open-ended war.
Though the “unity government” insists they are now “close” to taking over Sirte, they have made only intermittent gains, and have a relatively limited number of troops, mostly the Petroleum Facilities Guard forces, who were never meant to be offensive fighters, and are only trained to hold facilities.
In addition to the airstrikes, the US has confirmed that some of their special forces operating on the ground in Libya have taken part in the Sirte battle, though so far they’ve insisted this is just a small number of troops, and they are mostly targeting for warplanes.