Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) is broadly on the defensive and is in search of new jihadists in Northern Africa, said Steve Warren, the spokesman for the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition.
“The United States estimates that the number of militants directly affiliated with Islamic State or sympathetic to it now operating in Libya is in the low thousands, or less than 5,000,” Reuters cited a US government source as saying.
The spokesman said the US command is not planning new airstrikes against terrorist forces in Libya soon, but noted that such a probability is growing, and asked the Libyan authorities to demonstrate the will and self-organization needed to help the coalition defeat the terrorists.
On February 19, US warplanes hit an Islamic State camp in the Libyan city of Sabratha, killing 43 people. The airstrike specifically targeted a Tunisian national believed to be behind the deadly attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March, 2015.
Colonel Warren explained that the fall in IS activity was thanks to the successful actions of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition.
“We believe this failure is due to several factors, the first and foremost I believe is the presence of devastating coalition air power,” Colonel Warren said.
Islamic State’s activity in Libya is of particular interest to Washington, acknowledged the US envoy to the coalition fighting IS jihadists.