A security vacuum when Libya was in the throes of a civil war has allowed ISIL to mobilize in the oil-rich region of Sirte [Xinhua]
The UN-backed National Accord government in Libya said on Sunday its forces had begun liberating the north coastal city of Sirte from the clutches of the Islamic State.
The Islamic State seized the city in June 2015 after law and order collapsed as various Libyan factions battled for control in the post-Qaddafi era.
It had used Sirte as a launchpad to attack profitable oilfields and key oil ports that have aided in financing the terrorist group.
A government spokesperson in the Libyan capital Tripoli, 430 kilometers west of Sirte, said that the final battle for the war-torn city had started as loyalist forces liberated one district after another.
The campaign to retake Sirte began three months ago but it was only a few weeks ago that the government forces with the help of US-led air strikes began to slowly retake neighborhoods formerly occupied by Islamic State fighters.
What few Islamic State fighters remain in the city appear to be pinned down in a few neighborhoods, the spokesperson said.
With government forces closing in, some analysts are cautioning that the defeat of the Islamic State in Sirte, its main stronghold outside Iraq and Syria, should not be viewed as a death knell for the terrorist group.
It is expected that the Islamic State will dissolve into the desert or other sympathetic towns to regroup.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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