Moscow decries US airstrikes on Daesh sites in Libya

By Moataz al-Majbari

TRIPOLI

Russia on Tuesday condemned U.S. airstrikes that targeted Daesh positions in Libya’s northern city of Sirte.

"Russia has always advocated the need for decisive action to destroy Daesh and other terrorist groups, wherever they may be, in strict compliance with international law," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We believe it is fundamentally important to establish solid coordination among all states engaged in the fight against terrorism," it added.

On Monday, the Pentagon said it had struck Daesh positions in Sirte at the behest of Libya’s UN-backed unity government.

Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the unity government, said Daesh had sustained "substantial losses" as a result of the strikes.

Russian Ambassador to Libya Ivan Molotkov, for his part, said the U.S. airstrikes lacked a legal basis, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

He went on to assert that the carrying out of airstrikes against terrorists in Libya "requires a resolution from the UN Security Council".

The airstrikes represented the first U.S. military intervention in the country to be carried out in coordination with Libya’s unity government.

In May, forces loyal to the unity government launched an offensive aimed at recapturing Sirte from Daesh, which overran the city in 2015.

Libya has been locked in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli, each of which boasts its own military capacity and legislative assembly.

Late last year, Libya’s rival governments signed a UN-backed agreement to establish a unity government in an effort to resolve the country’s six-year political standoff.