US says airstrike against IS in Libya kills 8

CAIRO – The U.S. military says it has carried out an airstrike against the Islamic State group in Libya. It’s the first U.S. airstrike in the North African country in over a year.

U.S. Africa Command released a statement Friday saying eight militants were killed in the airstrike, launched a day earlier.

Gen. Stephen Townsend, AFRICOM’s commander, says the strike was meant to “eliminate terrorist leaders” in the vicinity of the town of Murziq, an oasis about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli.

He says no civilians were killed or wounded by the airstrike.

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