Forces aligned to Libya's UN-backed national unity government have gained full control of Sirte after months of fighting, in a major blow to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the country.

"Our forces have total control of Sirte," Reda Issa, a spokesman for pro-government forces, told AFP news agency on Monday. "Our forces saw Daesh totally collapse," he said referring to the Arabic name of ISIL.
The battle for the coastal city, which was the last significant territory held by ISIL, also known as ISIS, in Libya, cost the lives of hundreds of loyalist troops as well as an unknown number of ISIL fighters, Issa said.

The government forces seized the coastal city's Jiza al-Bahrieh district, the last area where the armed group has been holding out, and were in the process of securing it, Issa said in a separate interview with DPA news agency.

"Daesh has totally collapsed and dozens of them have given themselves up to our forces," said a statement on the loyalist forces' official Facebook page.

The developments follow a bitter seven-month campaign against ISIL, which took advantage of Libya's split between rival governments in the east and west of the country to build up its largest territory outside its heartland in Syria and Iraq.

ISIL fighters are still thought to be present in several parts of southern and eastern Libya but no longer control any towns.

Source: Agencies