US air strike hits IS in Libya; 40 dead

Tripoli, February 19 

US warplanes carried out air strikes against Islamic State-linked militants in western Libya on Friday, killing as many as 40 persons in an operation targeting a suspect linked to two deadly attacks last year in neighbouring Tunisia.

It was the second US air strike in three months against Islamic State in Libya, where the hardline Islamist militants have exploited years of chaos following Muammar Gaddafi's 2011 overthrow to build up a presence on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The mayor of the Libyan city of Sabratha, Hussein al-Thwadi, told Reuters the planes struck at 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT), hitting a building in the city's Qasr Talil district where foreign workers were living. He said 40 people had been killed and six wounded. The death toll could not immediately be confirmed with other officials.

Tunisian security sources have said they believe Tunisian Islamic State fighters have been trained in camps near Sabratha, which is close to the Tunisian border.

A US military officer said among those targeted in the air strikes was senior Tunisian operative, Noureddine Chouchane, believed to be connected to the attacks last year on a Tunis museum and the Souse beach resort which killed dozens of people.

Officials have said those two attacks, both claimed by Islamic State, were carried out by gunmen who trained in Libya. — Agencies