In a new twist to an intensifying campaign to squeeze Islamic State oil revenues, U.S. warplanes have destroyed 116 oil-hauling trucks in eastern Syria that were a key part of a smuggling operation that brings the group an estimated $1.4 million a day.
The series of strikes conducted Sunday and announced Monday was the first of their kind in more than a year of U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria. Four A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes and two AC-130 Spectre gunships pounded the trucks as they clustered near Abu Kamal, a town close to the Iraqi border.
U.S. officials previously had said they avoided attacking fuel trucks out of concern for civilian casualties.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that in an effort to warn the truck drivers to leave the area in advance of Sunday’s attacks, leaflets were dropped and coalition planes conducted low-level “show of force” flights over the site.
Davis said the coalition had determined that more needed to be done to inhibit the Islamic State’s generation of oil revenues in Syria and Iraq. The Treasury Department said last year that the group earned nearly $1 million a day from illicit oil sales; the Pentagon believes that sum has risen to nearly $1.4 million a day. Since the earliest days of the U.S.-led bombing campaign, some parts of the Islamic State’s oil infrastructure have been attacked, but the effort is now intensifying.
“This part of it was designed to attack the distribution component of ISIL’s oil smuggling operation,” Davis said, referring to attacking the fuel trucks. “ISIL is stealing oil from the people of Iraq and Syria to fund its campaign of terror.”
Although Sunday’s strikes came just two days after the Paris attacks for which the Islamic State had claimed responsibility, Pentagon officials said there was no direct connection between the two events.
The attacks were part of a broader U.S.-led coalition campaign to cripple a key source of revenue for the Islamic State. Davis said it would take “some time” to fully realize the long-term effects of targeting key elements of the oil network.
“In the short term we know we are disrupting a significant source of funding that’s being used to kill innocent people,” he said.
Asked why the U.S. had waited so long to hit fuel trucks, which are highly vulnerable and easily targeted by air, Davis said the U.S.-led coalition has been mindful of civilian casualties and sought to limit damage to Syria’s oil resources to preserve them for future generations.
“We’re balancing that with the fact that this revenue is presenting a clear and present threat to Syrians today, in that it’s being converted into funds which are being used for military equipment, which is being used to kill innocent civilians,” Davis said.
Army Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said last week that the U.S. has learned over time that the militants were quickly replacing or repairing damage to oil distribution centers and other infrastructure. In many cases, he said, within days of an airstrike the targeted piece of oil infrastructure was up and running again.
“We don’t want to completely and utterly destroy these facilities to where they’re irreparable,” Warren said. “So what we’ve done is we’ve used very precise targeting, a very detailed analysis to strike certain parts of these facilities that will cause them to shut down for an extended period of time.”
Warren said the military did detailed analysis to determine how to knock out the facilities for more than a day or two.
“We wanted them broken longer. Rather than 24 to 48 hours, we’re looking at, you know, something that would take maybe a year to repair,” he said.
The goal, he said, was to destroy machinery or facilities for which the militants don’t have the needed replacement parts.
The overall campaign against oil infrastructure, dubbed Operation Tidal Wave II, is about 70 percent complete, Warren said. He said Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. commander in charge of the counter-Islamic State campaign, approved the operation, which was named after a World War II mission – Operation Tidal Wave, conducted against Nazi oil fields in Romania in August 1943.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Who cares who is around these vehicles or these animals. TAKE THEM OUT!!! You can’t fight a war without collateral damage and when these animals find out they’re not safe anymore, no matter where they are or who they are around, then maybe they’ll try to find a cave or a hole in the ground to hide in, where animals belong, anyway.
Who’s fighting a war? Just the muslims. The US hasn’t fought a war since WWII. Everything else has been to support the dictatorship of the NWO.
I’m a combat wounded Viet Nam “war” veteran. The whole thing was a sick joke then, its a sicker joke now.
“we the people” are just being used.
Time to wake up.
Yup!!,,,Right On!!,,
Thank you for your service, and sorry the citizens and government treated our vets like shit.
So who is buying ISIS oil? Shouldn’t they be sanctioned for their assisting a terrorist organization? Or is that to “insensitive”?
as far as Iam concerned Obama should be held on charges and impeached already . Everytime he does something I say he cant do worse ? Then he does something unAmerica again ! The minute he traded one of our so called men who went awol for 5 killers from Gitmo , Obama should of been jailed on charges . This so called president has made our country look weak in the eyes of other countries . When obama Lite up the whitehouse in rainbow colors I could of puked all over him if he was in front of me . This man is a disgrace to America I could write aother ten pages but I know I am limited here and Iam sure you all agree . Obama should of never been made president , not of the usa anyway . Maybe the ACLU BUT NOT AMERICA PRAY FOR THIS COUNTRY PLEASE . HE CAN DO ALOT MORE DAMAGE IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS
We simply have to stick to ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ policy. We can only reason with normal people, but not beasts. Our ‘weakness’ is being too merciful and considerate for too long when we fight against terrorism. It is about time we have exercise our power to fight terror with terror, and in that sense, collateral damage may be inevitable. Nonetheless, it is still a logical and worthwhile move to sacrifice a few innocent lives if we can save the majority from being attacked by the residual extremists once for all. We have to teach those bastards a lesson that evil will never win.
For all you Obama haters out there,take a deep breath and hold it till you die.all of you are nothing but racists assholes and are a disgrace to america’s way of life.You have a right to your opinion and how lucky you people are.In another country your stated opinions would get you shot.so in conclusion I would take president Obama over any of the dummies who are trying to become the next radical potus.all I’ll say on that is good luck,they’ll need it. I’ll say this your on a good site radical news for radical discriminatory people like Fox News.
You are the idiot, and you and your loser friends that support this socialist racist can go to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who is the racist flame thrower? I would say the President and all the people that he has put in office!! We have not had this much racial tension since the 60’s. I am a HARD WORKING WHITE CONSERVATIVE, AND I HAVE SUPPORTED BEN CARSON SINCE I FIRST HEARD HIM SPEAK!!!!!!!!!!!! SHOVE YOUR RACIST CARD UP YOUR ASS
There is a whole lot of PC going on in PC DC. Is anyone there, except Trump, actually making or promising to make decisions for America? Just how has this incredible pro anyone but America administration gotten to lie and deceive for so long? And with “conressional support! And the party of blame is up to their old sceming. Blame America for everything those monsters are doing! And blame the police for defending themselves. As I see it my civil right to be protected by the military and police is being violated by this administrations Poliy # 1. Blame America! O has pulled the wool over the eyes of the SC, over many congressional types, an the propaganda machine, oops the press is no longer staffed by reporters but by opinionators with additional mind control by a flock of pollsters!
This is the first report of any damage made to iis facilities in months? Probably because O has ordered them to bomb the sand dunes to avoid damaging military targets. Is the next phase of O’s campaign to report no damage and to load up a bunch of isis guys into AF1 and fly them to DC for a state dinner for outstanding service in Paris? Things are so negative about America in C, our seat of govt! O needs to resign or do like Honduras did when their president tried to take over. Their congress and SC deposed him and exiled him. O shoud be exiled to Iran or to isis!
O should be hung by the ball until crisp