Pro-government forces in Libya said they seized control of the Takfiri ISIL group’s headquarters in Sirte on Wednesday as they push to oust the insurgents from the coastal city.

Pro-government forces in Libya said they seized control of the Takfiri ISIL group’s headquarters in Sirte on Wednesday as they push to oust the insurgents from the coastal city.

"The Ouagadougou centre is in our hands," the operations centre for forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) said.

Reda Issa, a spokesman for the forces, said ISIL militants remained in three residential areas of the city and in a villa complex near the seafront.

"The announcement of the liberation (of Sirte) will only be made once the entire city is liberated," he told AFP.

Capturing the Ouagadougou center has been the key goal of pro-GNA forces as they have battled for weeks to oust ISIL from Sirte, which the Takfiris seized in June last year amid the chaos that followed the 2011 ouster of Moamer Kadhafi.

The city's capture raised deep concerns, with fears the Takfiris were gaining an important foothold just across the Mediterranean from Europe.

Loyalist forces stepped up their fight for the city in recent days, and the Pentagon announced last week it had begun carrying out air strikes on ISIL positions in Sirte at the GNA's request.