An air strike by an unidentified warplane Friday, February 19 killed more than 40 people near the Libyan capital where suspected members of the Islamic State group were gathered in a house, officials said, according to AFP.

The house in Sabratha was completely destroyed in the raid, said Hussein al-Dawadi, an official in the city located about 70 kilometres west of Tripoli near the border with Tunisia.

A Western official quoted by the New York Times said U.S. warplanes carried out the strike targeting a senior Tunisian operative linked to two major jihadist attacks in Tunisia last year.