"We're looking at military options, a range of other options as a government that we can engage in to try … to be prepared, in the event that ISIL in Libya becomes more of a threat than it is even today," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters during a Wednesday briefing.

He said a "small group" of military personnel are on the ground in the North Africa country right now to "simply get a better sense of who the players are, who might be worthy of U.S. support and support from some of our partners going forward in the fight against [ISIS]."

U.S. officials are "extremely worried about the metastasis of ISIL to other locations, Libya being just one of those locations," Cook added, using the other common acronym for the extremist network.