By Seif Eddine Trabelsi

TRIPOLI, Libya

Several members of the Daesh terrorist group surrendered late Tuesday to forces loyal to Libya’s unity government following fierce clashes in the northern city of Sirte, according to a military source.

The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency anonymously due to security concerns, described the militants’ capitulation as a "rare occurrence".

He went on to suggest that they had surrendered because they had run out of ammunition.

In a related development, the general hospital in Libya’s northwestern city of Misurata (located some 240 kilometers from Sirte) said in a statement that it had received the bodies of five Libyan soldiers killed in Sirte on Tuesday in clashes with Daesh.

Military sources also told Anadolu Agency that forces loyal to the unity government had recently killed at least 30 Daesh militants in Sirte.

The same sources went on to estimate that only 50 Daesh militants still remain in the coastal city.

Since May, forces loyal to Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidential Council have been trying to retake Sirte from Daesh, which captured the city in early 2015.

In September, Libyan forces wrested most of Sirte from the militants, who now remain concentrated in the city’s eastern districts.