U.S. airstrikes Friday hit a suspected Islamic State training camp in Libya, leaving at least 40 dead — possibly including a senior leader — in an attack that followed Western calls for stepped-up pressures against militant strongholds in North Africa.
The Pentagon press secretary, Peter Cook, said a key target was a senior Tunisian militant linked to deadly commando-style attacks last year in his homeland.
Earlier, a U.S. defense official said the militant, Noureddine Chouchane, was “likely killed” in Friday’s airstrikes. But Cook said full details were being assessed. Authorities in Libya and Tunisia said at least 40 people were killed, but had no immediate reports on Chouchane.
It was the first major U.S. air raid in Libya since November and followed increased alarms by Western leaders about a widening Islamic State presence there, which could open new oil-linked funding sources and give militants footholds along migrant routes to southern Europe.
President Obama this week urged greater efforts to keep the Islamic State from “digging in” across Libya, where ongoing political infighting has divided the country into rival administrations and complicated Western-led efforts to battle militant factions.The United States and allies, meanwhile, have relied on aerial surveillance and small reconnaissance teams to identify suspected Islamic State sites and movements.
The airstrikes destroyed a large farmhouse outside Sabratha, a city in western Libya near the Tunisia border, where suspected militant fighters had gathered to hear a religious leader, said Jamal Naji Zubia, the head of the foreign news media office in Tripoli, in a telephone interview.
A key target in the attack was Chouchane, also known as Sabir, an Islamic State operative who was believed to be a key plotter in at least one of two Tunisian attacks against popular tourist sites.
Cook, the Pentagon spokesman, described Chouchane as an “experienced facilitator” involved in recruitment, planning and attempts by the Islamic State to establish more bases in Libya.
