{Government-backed forces in Libya have made their largest gains yet into so-called Islamic State (IS) territory in Sirte city since their offensive began in May, officials say.}<\/p>\n
Troops advanced more than 1km (0.6 miles) into areas previously held by IS, re-taking residential districts.<\/p>\n
Dozens of soldiers and IS fighters were reportedly killed.<\/p>\n
Sirte is IS’s most significant stronghold in Libya. It has been under IS control since February 2015.<\/p>\n
Libyan government forces announced on their official Facebook page that they also had control of an official radio station and power management facility.<\/p>\n
Al-Jazeera reports that the troops have also recaptured an IS ammunition store.<\/p>\n
Troops loyal to the unity government, which was formed in the capital Tripoli earlier this year, had already re-captured the port and other parts of Sirte.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a mystery explosion in a town close to Tripoli has killed at least 25 people, apparently after a dispute at a shop escalated.<\/p>\n
The blast took place in Garabulli after clashes between locals and militia fighters from the city of Misrata.<\/p>\n
Officials initially said a munitions store had exploded but one resident told the BBC a lorry loaded with fireworks had exploded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Government-backed forces in Libya have made their largest gains yet into so-called Islamic State (IS) territory in Sirte city since their offensive began in May, officials say.} Troops advanced more than 1km (0.6 miles) into areas previously held by IS, re-taking residential districts. Dozens of soldiers and IS fighters were reportedly killed. Sirte is IS’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26263"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26263"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}