US says airstrike against IS in Libya kills 11

CAIRO – The U.S. military says it has carried out an airstrike against the Islamic State group in Libya, the second U.S. airstrike in the North African country in less than a week.

These are the first U.S. airstrikes in Libya in over a year.

U.S. Africa Command said Wednesday that 11 militants were killed in the strike, launched a day earlier.

Maj. Gen. William Gayler, director of operations at AFRICOM, said the airstrike was in the vicinity of the town of Murziq, an oasis about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli.

AFRICOM said the Murziq area was also targeted in Thursday’s airstrike, which killed eight IS militants.

Islamic extremists expanded their reach in Libya amid the chaos following the 2011 uprising, which killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.