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US-led warplanes batter IS oil refineries
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US-LED warplanes kept up strikes on oil sites funding the Islamic State group yesterday, as al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate threatened reprisals after a key operative was reported killed.
The coalition raids destroyed three makeshift oil refineries in jihadist-controlled territory in Syria, intensifying efforts to deny IS funding after a wave of strikes on its oil infrastructure last Thursday night.
IS controls a swathe of territory straddling northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria. The area includes most of Syria’s main oil fields. The jihadists have sought to exploit the oil fields through improvised refining and smuggling.
The coalition strikes hit close by the Turkish frontier, near Tal Abyad just across the border from the Turkish town of Akcakale, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“At least three makeshift refineries under IS control in the Tal Abyad region were destroyed,” the Observatory said.
Before the launch of US-led air strikes on IS in Syria last Tuesday, analysts said the jihadists were earning as much as US$3 million a day from oil revenues.
The strikes around Tal Abyad came after Saturday raids near the mainly Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, also very close to the Turkish border.
IS has assaulted the town, known as Kobane in Kurdish, for more than a week, sparking an exodus of at least 160,000 refugees into Turkey.
The coalition also kept up its raids on the jihadist heartland province of Raqa early yesterday as it pressed what Washington said are “near continuous” strikes.
The raids destroyed a plastics factory outside Raqa city, killing one civilian, the Observatory said.
IS oil infrastructure is one of the main targets of the bombing campaign in Syria, which Washington and its Arab allies launched last Tuesday. It builds on the air war against IS in Iraq.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said apparent US missile strikes had killed at least seven civilians in Idlib province in northwestern Syria last Tuesday, calling for a probe into possible violations of the laws of war.
On the ground, Iraqi pro-government forces backed by warplanes yesterday repelled an IS attack on the strategic western town of Amriyat al-Fallujah, security sources said.
“Warplanes eventually engaged the insurgents and killed 15 of them,” local police chief Aref al-Janabi said, without identifying the aircraft.
The town “has strategic importance. It is a main logistics road for the army and it is the link between Anbar and Karbala,” a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad, Janabi said.
Multiple European governments have approved plans to join the air campaign in Iraq, including the UK.
UK fighter jets flew their first combat mission over Iraq on Saturday.
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