US-led coalition conducts airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq and Syria

The USA and its allies have carried out 19 airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria on Monday, the US military said in a statement on Tuesday. Syria witnessed six attacks against tactical units, fighting positions, a training camp and other IS targets. In Iraq the US-led coalition carried out 13 airstrikes near the cities of Bayji, Mosul, Ramadi and others. The USA announced Operation Inherent Resolve against the IS last year after the Islamists seized large territories in northern Iraq including the city of Mosul, the second biggest city of the country.

Islamic State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL) on Tuesday claimed a car bomb attack against an oil company co-owned by Italy’s Eni in the Libyan capital. In a statement on Twitter, IS said that one of its “security detachments targeted the headquarters of Mellitah Oil and Gas with a car bomb in the Dhahra district in downtown Tripoli,” AFP said. At least one unidentified person was hurt in the explosion on Monday, a few meters away from the offices of the oil firm, which is also owned by the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC). Mellitah’s offices sit on the same street as the shuttered embassies of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. Media agencies