3 govt forces killed in Sirte clashes with Daesh

By Khalil al-Klai

SIRTE, Libya (AA) – Three government forces were killed and 10 others injured in clashes on Sunday with Daesh militants in Libya’s northern city of Sirte, a government spokesman has said.

“Our forces have expelled Daesh militants from the strategic Dollar neighborhood [in Sirte],” Ahmed Hadeya told Anadolu Agency.

He said that three soldiers were killed and 10 others injured in the clashes.

The spokesman, however, did not give an account of Daesh casualties in the confrontations.

On Saturday, the government said that its forces had seized a Daesh-run explosives-manufacturing workshop in eastern Sirte.

In May, forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government launched an offensive to recapture Sirte from Daesh terrorist group, which overran the city in 2015.

Libya has been locked in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli, each of which boasts its own military capacity and legislative assembly.

Late last year, Libya’s rival governments signed a UN-backed agreement to establish a unity government in an effort to resolve the country’s six-year political standoff.