U.S. hits ISIS camp in Libya, targeting Tunisia attacks mastermind, Western official says

U.S. airstrikes hit an ISIS camp in Libya

(Image credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images)

last updated 19 February 2016

Early Friday, U.S. warplanes hit an Islamic State camp outside Sabratha, Libya, killing more than 30 ISIS recruits, most of them Tunisians, a Western official tells The New York Times. The target of the airstrikes was Noureddine Chouchane, an ISIS operative from Tunisia the U.S. has linked to two deadly attacks in Tunis and Sousse, Tunisia, in 2015. U.S. officials are still trying to determine if Chouchane was killed in the attack. The U.S. airstrikes do not represent the beginning of a major U.S. offensive in Libya, the Western official said, but were a limited attack aimed at a particular militant. U.S. and British special forces have been mapping out militant leaders and networks in Libya for a few months, The Times reports.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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