Hostages feard killed in War plane attack in Libya

American warplanes hit an ISIS camp in Libya where foreign fighters had been engaged in advanced training, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. Local officials said at least 49 people had been killed and six injured.

Noureddine Chouchane, a senior operative in the terrorist group from Tunisia, was believed to be among those from around Africa and the Middle East who had converged on the site. It was not immediately clear whether Chouchane was killed, Earnest said Friday.

Chouchane is thought to have played an instrumental role in two terrorist attacks in Tunisia last year, one at Tunis' Bardo Museum that killed 23 people and another at a seaside resort in Sousse that left 38 people dead. ISIS claimed responsibility for both massacres.

Conflicting information emerged Saturday about whether the strike also might have killed two Serbian Embassy employees who were kidnapped last year.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the pair -- communications officer Sladjana Stankovic and driver Jovica Stepic, who were kidnapped in Sabratah in November 2015 -- were believed to be among the dead.

 

However, a U.S. official told CNN that the U.S. Defense Department had no indication that the Serbian workers were at the strike site.

"We can say with very good certainty there were no civilian casualties at the strike, and the target presented a low risk of civilian casualties," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"The Defense Department is very deliberate and careful when selecting targets," the official added.

A spokeswoman for the Serbian Foreign Ministry emphasized that Serbia still was waiting for official confirmation from Libyan authorities about whether the Serbian pair were among the dead. She said that Serbia had been informed by the Pentagon that the specific location where they were believed to be held had been bombed.

Friday morning's U.S. strike in the al-Qasser district in Sabratha, a coastal city in northwestern Libya where most residents are from Tunisia, killed at least 49 people, Hussain al-Thawadi, the Mayor of Sabratah, said.

Al-Thawadi told Libya TV in an interview the death toll could rise because more people might still be under the rubble. He said the house was rented by suspected ISIS members, and he believed more than 60 people were inside it when it was hit.

Also six people were wounded, according to the Sabratha Municipal Council.

credit cnn.com