Libyan forces retake key port city Sirte from DAESH

Libyan forces say that they have recaptured the port city of Sirte from DAESH. The terrorists have fled to the deserts but many members of the group are said to be stuck in the city.

The forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government, (GNA), pounded DAESH positions around the Ouagadougou conference centre, a sprawling complex that is used by the group as a command centre. The fall of Sirte would be a major defeat for DAESH terror group as it has also lost ground in Syria and Iraq.

Warplanes, tanks, rocket launchers and artillery have been used during the operation in which a residential area in the east of Sirte was also retaken.

General Muhammad al Ghursi, a spokesperson for the GNA forces, said senior leaders of DAESH had fled into the desert to the south, but many terrorists are surrounded inside the city.

Sirte, the hometown of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was the main DAESH base in the North African country.

According to media reports, there were about 6,000 DAESH terrorists in the city two months ago.

Rida Issa, another spokesperson for the forces said 11 members of the forces loyal to GNA have been killed and 45 others were wounded during the clashes on Friday.

Since the three-week-long operation in the city began, more than 100 allied fighters have been killed.

In last April, a unity government, GNA, was formed in Tripoli.

Since then, it has been trying to bring order into Libya, the country that had two rival governments for almost two years - one based in the capital Tripoli and another in the eastern city of Tobruk.

This was the latest step in the operation that was launched in May by GNA to drive out DAESH terrorists who started to expand into Libya in 2014.