Army Gen. David Rodriguez, who heads U.S. Africa Command, told reporters at the Pentagon that there may be "a couple of hundred" fighters undergoing training at the sites, but details are sketchy. "We'll have to just continue to monitor and watch that carefully in the future to see what happens or whether it grows unabated," Rodriguez said.
The ISIS group operates mainly in Syria and Iraq, and US President Barack Obama has pledged to degrade and destroy the organization.
The U.S. and coalition partners have been conducting airstrikes against the group in Iraq and Syria for several months but effect of this attacks hadn’t show nothing touchable a the battle ground.
Rodriguez called the establishment of IS training camps in Libya a "nascent" development that does not amount to a large or well-organised effort.
He did not say how many camps are operating. Asked whether the camps are a potential target for U.S. airstrikes, Rodriguez said that the camps are not being targeted "right now."
On November fighters loyal to the so-called “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” gets complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union.
The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their presence westwards along the coast.
It is believed Derna branch of ISIS counts 800 fighters and operates half a dozen camps on the outskirts of the town, as well as larger facilities in the nearby Green Mountains, where fighters from across North Africa are being trained.
It has been bolstered by the return to Libya from Syria and Iraq of up to 300 Libyan terrorists who were part of ISIS’ "al Battar Brigade" — deployed at first in Deir Ezzor in Syria and then Mosul in Iraq. These fighters supported the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam in Derna, a pro-ISIS faction, as media reported on November.
Amateur video from the end of October showed a large crowd of militants affiliated with the "Shura Council for the Youth of Islam" chanting their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The new ISIS wing in Derna calls itself the “Barqa” provincial division of the ISIS, the name given to the eastern region of Libya when Islamic rule replaced the Roman Empire.