Italian and the US officials both agreed on Monday to launch armed drones from Sicily's air base, to Libya's Islamic State areas. The agreement between the two countries is part of the military co-ordination to counter the Islamic extremist group on Northern part of Africa.
Talks regarding the agreement between the US and the Italian countries took one year of negotiations, the Guardian reported. Italy's defense ministries released the news of confirmation regarding the said agreement as Islamic State Militant group has been gaining control over Libya. A US official also announced the said agreement, allowing the US drones to fly out from the said Italian base.
However, the permission does not mean the US can freely control the Italian city's base. It would not take part in military strikes in Libya without the express request of a recognized government. Italy has also agreed to the use of drones only for "defensive" purposes or to protect coalition special forces on the ground in Isis-controlled areas.
The jihadi group had been expanding its presence and causing chaos in Libya since Qaddafi's administration was overthrown, Alarabiya reported. The US has made an attack last week on a base in Sabratha, close to the Tunisian border. Noureddine Chouchane, a militant who was connected two Tunisia raids was the target of the said attack.
However, despite both countries agreed to it, Italian officials also fears that their decision to allow the Italian base to be use for air strikes will cause the public to backlash them more, FT World reported. Italy reportedly said they do not want to sparked domestic opposition to such offensive strikes against Libya, particularly if the country could then be blamed for civilian deaths.
The drones are based at the Sigonella naval air station in Sicily, which is also a Nato and Italian air base. Isis's presence in Libya has become an increasing concern. US and British special forces have recently been deployed in Libya and surveillance has been conducted by US, British and French warplanes.
