25-04-2024 07:06 PM Jerusalem Timing

US General: ISIL has Training Camps in Eastern Libya

US General: ISIL has Training Camps in Eastern Libya

The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group has set up training camps in eastern Libya and the American military is closely monitoring

The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group has set up training camps in eastern Libya and the American military is closely monitoring, a top U.S. general said Wednesday.soldiers

Western countries have been increasingly worried that Libya's political turmoil could provide fertile ground for extremists, but General David Rodriguez ruled out military action on the "nascent" camps in the immediate future.

"They put training camps out there," Rodriguez, head of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters, referring to the ISIL organization that seized territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria this year in a brutal and swift offensive of beheadings and forced religious conversions.

He described the ISIL activity in eastern Libya as "very small and nascent."

"Around a couple hundred" militants were present at the camps and U.S. forces would continue to track the area to see if the ISIL presence expanded, said Rodriguez.

The United States has been waging an air war against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, but when asked if the training camps in Libya were a potential target for American forces, Rodriguez said: "No, not right now."

The ISIL group "has begun its efforts over in the east out there to introduce some people over there," he said. "But we'll have to just continue to monitor and watch that carefully in the future to see what happens or whether it grows on unabated."