Two Whiteman B-2s Hit ISIS Training Camps in Libya

Two B-2s from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., flew a 34-hour round trip mission to drop about 100 munitions on two ISIS training camps on Thursday, killing more than 80 fighters who had convened in the desert to train and plan future external operations, the Pentagon announced. The B-2s, supported by more than a dozen refueling and additional airstrikes and surveillance by MQ-9 Reapers, hit the ISIS camps south of Sirte, where they had fled after being routed by Libyan Government of National Accord fighters backed by the US in Operation Odyssey Lightning over the past several months. “We had 100 terrorists training south of Sirte, and in the US’s view that is a risk we could not accept,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said during a Thursday briefing. The action was authorized by President Obama in what was likely his last personally ordered military action in office. The Pentagon showed video of ISIS fighters moving rocket propelled grenades and other munitions from two trucks at one of the camps, and a video of one of the strikes destroying small structures in the desert. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday that commanders picked the B-2 for the mission because of its unique abilities, including its armament and distance. The mission is a return to Libya for the B-2s. In March 2011, two B-2s conducted strikes on military targets under the command of then-dictator Muammar Qaddafi.