Libyan pro-government forces Sunday pressed an offensive against Daesh group holdouts in Sirte, pounding them with heavy artillery after a two-week pause in the fighting, their media office said.
The forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) also killed suicide bombers before the terrorists could detonate two vehicles, a statement on their Facebook page said.
“Our forces are using heavy artillery to target the positions where Daesh holdouts are cowering,” the statement said. It said the two booby-trapped vehicles were blown up in District Three, the last area to which the radicals have pulled back.
Reda Issa, a spokesman for the loyalist forces, said field commanders held several meetings before deciding to resume the offensive after a two-week lull. “Progress is now being achieved and our forces are clashing with Daesh fighters,” he told AFP.
A field hospital on the outskirts of Sirte said three members of the loyalist forces were killed on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Issa had said the fighting had eased as pro-government forces mull ways “to minimize the casualties caused by Daesh suicide attacks.”
Suicide bombings and sniper fire from the cornered terrorists have slowed the offensive loyalist forces first launched in May to retake Sirte, the coastal hometown of dead dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
More than 450 members of the loyalist forces have been killed and around 2,500 wounded since the operation began.

Source: Arab News