Two Air Force B-2 stealth bombers struck Islamic State camps southwest of the Libyan city of Sirte on Wednesday night, less than a month after the Pentagon declared an end to an extended air campaign there.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the aircraft, known for their distinctive bat-like appearance, dropped more than 100 bombs and hit two Islamic State encampments about 30 miles outside Sirte. The outposts were inhabited at least in part by fighters who had fled the city in the fall, and the operation was approved by President Obama, Cook said.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters Thursday that the camps contained militants “actively plotting” attacks in Europe and that the strikes were “critically important.”
“As always, external operations are a very important part of the reason to destroy ISIL, as well as to wipe them out of Libya itself,” Carter said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
MQ-9 armed drones also participated in the strikes, using Hellfire missiles to hit targets that remained after the initial bombardment, Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, told reporters. The operation took 34 hours, and the two B-2s, named the Spirit of Pennsylvania and the Spirit of Georgia, flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to carry out the strikes, Ryder said. The camps were in remote desert locations, and no civilians were believed to have been hit in the bombardment, officials said.
Source:-Washingtonpost
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the aircraft, known for their distinctive bat-like appearance, dropped more than 100 bombs and hit two Islamic State encampments about 30 miles outside Sirte. The outposts were inhabited at least in part by fighters who had fled the city in the fall, and the operation was approved by President Obama, Cook said.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters Thursday that the camps contained militants “actively plotting” attacks in Europe and that the strikes were “critically important.”
“As always, external operations are a very important part of the reason to destroy ISIL, as well as to wipe them out of Libya itself,” Carter said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
MQ-9 armed drones also participated in the strikes, using Hellfire missiles to hit targets that remained after the initial bombardment, Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, told reporters. The operation took 34 hours, and the two B-2s, named the Spirit of Pennsylvania and the Spirit of Georgia, flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to carry out the strikes, Ryder said. The camps were in remote desert locations, and no civilians were believed to have been hit in the bombardment, officials said.
Source:-Washingtonpost
No comments:
Post a Comment