Sirte is almost 500 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli. Further east is Benghazi where more than 22 people were killed by a suicide bomb attack in a residential area on Tuesday evening, Reuters reports.

The US is involved in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Almost four years after the death of Gadaffi, internal power struggles and foreign interests have hindered any rebuilding of the country,according to EuroNews.

Yesterday a car bomb targeting security forces in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killed at least 22 people and wounded 20 on Tuesday.

The blast occurred in a residential area in the Guwarsha district, the scene of fighting between security forces loyal to Libya's eastern government and an alliance of Islamists and other Libyan opponents.

The alliance, the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, said it had carried out the attack, according to a statement posted on media sites linked to the group. It claimed that 28 people were killed and as many as 70 wounded.

12