Libyan gov't coordinates with U.S. to target terrorist leaders in southern Libya

TRIPOLI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan UN-backed government is coordinating with the United States to target terrorist leaders in Libya's southern city of Ubari, said the spokesman of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj on Saturday.

"Following joint coordination between the Government of National Accord and the United States, two terrorist leaders were targeted and killed during a meeting in a house in Ubari," Mohamed Sallak told a news briefing on Saturday.

Sallak did not reveal the nationalities of the killed terrorists or the organization to which they belong, however, security sources pointed out that the targeted terrorists belonged to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which attacked the French troops in Mali.

The spokesman said that the operation came within the framework of strategic cooperation between Tripoli and Washington in the fight against terrorism.

A foreign airstrike on Saturday afternoon targeted a site of a terrorist group in Ubari, according to Ramadan Saleh, Ubari's security coordinator.

Southern Libya witnesses active movement of IS terrorists who fled from Sirte, in addition to large presence of members of al-Qaida in Maghreb, due to the area's desert and mountain nature and mobility on the borders with Chad, Niger and Sudan.

U.S. airstrikes occasionally target remnants of terrorists in Sirte, some 450 east of the capital Tripoli, as well as southern Libya. Enditem