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US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, on Saturday said that coalition aircraft conducted a "series of air strikes" against "a gathering of (Isil) leaders near Mosul".

"We cannot confirm if (Isil) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present," said Centcom spokesman Patrick Ryder.

The US-led strikes late on Friday were a further sign of "the pressure we continue to place on the Isil terrorist network," he said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

The aim was to squeeze the group and ensure it had "increasingly limited freedom to manoeuvre, communicate and command".

"I can't absolutely confirm that Baghdadi has been killed," General Nicholas Houghton, the chief of staff of the British armed forces, told BBC television on Sunday. "Probably it will take some days to have absolute confirmation."

Washington has offered a $10 million reward for his capture, and some analysts say he is increasingly seen as more powerful than al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The Iraqi government responded on Saturday to announcements from the US and other countries that trainers would be sent to the country, saying in a statement that: "This step is a little late, but we welcome it."

The government had requested that members of the international coalition help train and arm its forces, the statement said.

"The coalition agreed on that and four to five Iraqi training camps were selected, and building on that, they have now begun sending the trainers," it said.

The new troops announced by Obama would roughly double the number of American military personnel in the country to roughly 3,100.

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Iraq investigating whether Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi killed in US air strikes

Libya, holder of Africas largest oil reserves, plans to restart production by tomorrow at its biggest field at Sharara while an export terminal in the countrys east remains closed.

The Sharara and Elephant fields in southwestern Libya will resume output after gunmen returned equipment they had stolen from the sites, state-run National Oil Corp. spokesman Mohamed Elharari said by telephone from Tripoli. Crude shipments from the Hariga terminal remain halted, said Ihab Said, an inspector at the facility.

Libya is seeking to restore crude output after more than a year of political unrest and violence. The nation produced 850,000 barrels a day last month, compared with 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 ouster of former leader Muammar Qaddafi, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Sharara was producing 290,000 barrels a day before the latest shutdown, Mansur Abdallah, director of oil movement at the Zawiya refinery and oil port, said Nov. 6. Sharara is 720 kilometers (450 miles) south of Zawiya, and the two sites are connected by a pipeline.

Exports from Hariga have been disrupted for days, Khalifa Mazeg, the ports measurement inspector, said yesterday.

Libyas output has recovered after dropping to as little as 215,000 barrels a day in April. The country is split between an Islamist-led administration led by Omar al-Hassi in Tripoli and the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Theni in the eastern city of Tobruk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saleh Sarrar in Tripoli at ssarar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net Rachel Graham, Bruce Stanley

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Libyas Biggest Oil Field to Resume Pumping by Tomorrow

The Islamist militias are, in turn, supported by Qatar, the oil and gas-rich Gulf state. A conflict that Qatar stands accused of inflaming has now spread from Tripoli and the coastal cities to the desert wastes of southern Libya.

Meanwhile, Britain's other best friend in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates, has lined up behind the non-Islamist forces who oppose Qatar's allies. The UAE and Egypt jointly support a coalition between Libya's elected parliament, which has been ousted from Tripoli and now meets in the city of Tobruk, and a rogue general, Khalifa al-Haftar.

The Islamist militias can also count on the backing of Turkey as well as Qatar. No less than four close allies of Britain have now taken up opposing sides in Libya.

With the fall of Al-Sharara oilfield, the Qatar-backed militias may follow up their success by attempting to seize other centres of Libyan oil production, whose funds currently find their way to all factions in the country's conflict. The Libyan Central Bank, which receives all revenues from oil exports, is already paralysed over competing demands for the distribution of the money.

But even leaving aside the attack on Al-Sharara, this was another disastrous week for Libya, the scene of the Anglo-French intervention in 2011 which helped local rebels to bring down Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Since then, the Western powers have favoured the anti-Islamist block, recognising the elected parliament as Libya's legitimate governing body, even though its members must live on a cruise ship moored off Tobruk.

The Libyan Supreme Court which is still based in Tripoli ruled this parliament to be illegal, noting how it was chosen in June during an election with a turnout of just 20 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the House rejected the judgment, saying it was made under duress thanks to the "force of arms" of the Islamist militias controlling the capital.

But that still leaves Libya torn between two rival assemblies, thanks to a decision by the old parliament, which was dissolved in June's election, to reconvene itself in Tripoli. Each of the opposing parliaments has, in turn, chosen an administration. Libya has duly been landed with two governments. Each side has declared the other to be unconstitutional as the enemies wage a battle for legal legitimacy alongside the struggle for territory.

If this was a sign of Libya's internal turmoil, there was more evidence this week of the failure of outside efforts to help. Britain tried to build up Libya's legal security forces by taking hundreds of militia fighters to Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire, where the Army did its best to turn them into proper disciplined soldiers. Now they are all being sent home in disgrace after dozens simply absconded and others were guilty of sexually assaulting local women.

Small wonder that David Cameron has said little about Libya since his triumphant appearance before cheering crowds in Benghazi to celebrate Gaddafi's downfall in 2011.

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How Libya descended into faction-fighting and chaos

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