{"id":27791,"date":"2016-08-17T03:18:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T03:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/libyan-forces-retake-central-sirte-district-from\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T03:18:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T03:18:13","slug":"libyan-forces-retake-central-sirte-district-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/libyan-forces-retake-central-sirte-district-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Libyan forces retake central Sirte district from ISIL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Soldiers advance on &#8220;District One&#8221;, the city&#8217;s last area held by ISIL, after capturing key neighbourhood, military says.}<\/p>\n<p>Forces loyal to Libya&#8217;s internationally backed government say they are close to retaking Sirte from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group after capturing a key neighbourhood in the heart of the coastal city.<\/p>\n<p>The fighters, mainly from the nearby city of Misrata, said they were advancing on ISIL-held &#8220;District One&#8221;, after seizing &#8220;District Two&#8221; on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;District Two has been liberated,&#8221; Reda Issa, a spokesman for the pro-government forces, told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The neighbourhood is now completely under control of our forces,&#8221; he said, adding that his side had overcome fierce opposition from ISIL snipers and car bombs.<\/p>\n<p>The advance came a day after loyalists cleared and demined areas captured in earlier clashes.<\/p>\n<p>ISIL, also known as ISIS, seized control of Sirte, the birth place of Libya&#8217;s overthrown leader Muammar Gaddafi, last year and controlled about 250km of the country&#8217;s Mediterranean coastline before forces aligned to the nascent, UN-brokered Government of National Accord (GNA) began operations against it in May.<\/p>\n<p>Since August 1, their progress has been aided by US air strikes on ISIL vehicles, weapons and fighting positions.<\/p>\n<p>US President Barack Obama said it was &#8220;in America&#8217;s national security interest&#8221; to help the pro-government forces &#8220;finish the job&#8221; of ousting ISIL from Sirte.<\/p>\n<p>The internationally backed government&#8217;s forces and those of a rival authority in the east are currently engaged in a race to be the first to drive ISIL out of the city. <\/p>\n<p>But some analysts believe this could jeopardise efforts to defeat the armed group.<\/p>\n<p>Libya has suffered from chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi, with numerous revolutionary militias formed along regional and ideological lines vying for power.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14303 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/5d28d15c28a74e469037ae51af306483_18.jpg\" alt=\"Libyan forces say they are closing in on &#039;District One&#039;, ISIL&#039;s last remaining stronghold in Sirte\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Soldiers advance on &#8220;District One&#8221;, the city&#8217;s last area held by ISIL, after capturing key neighbourhood, military says.} Forces loyal to Libya&#8217;s internationally backed government say they are close to retaking Sirte from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group after capturing a key neighbourhood in the heart of the coastal city. [&hellip;]<\/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":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27791","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=27791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27791"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27791"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}