Italy approves 'protective' US drone strikes on Libya from Sicily

Italy has agreed that US forces can use an airbase in Sicily to launch drone strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Libya on a case-by-case basis, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Pinotti told the daily Il Messaggero that any strikes launched from the Sigonella base would be limited to operations required to protect US and allied personnel and assets involved in combating the Islamic State group in Libya and elsewhere.

She said every strike would be subject to an individual authorisation request to the Italian government and that they would only be used as a "last resort".

She added: "To date the drones have not been used in armed operations and there have been no requests for them to be."

The Italian decision comes after US fighter jets struck an IS base near Tripoli last Friday, killing 40 people including Noureddine Chouchane, a high-level Tunisian militant linked to attacks in Sousse and Tunis last year. The raid was launched from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Two Serbian diplomats, Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic, who were kidnapped by IS in November, were also killed in the strike.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday offered his condolences to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic over the killing of the two kidnapped Serbian diplomats, Belgrade said.

Kerry "told the prime minister that he would inform the Serbian government ... about all the details of an investigation conducted by the US and its services, about the murder of Serbian diplomats," it said.

Vucic on the weekend said that the pair "would have been released, had they not been killed".