Washington: US and coalition aircraft targeted a crude oil pipeline and collection depots in Syria held by Islamic State jihadists, the American military said, in the latest bid to undercut the group’s oil smuggling.
Allied fighter jets and bombers carried out 14 air raids near the eastern city of Dayr-az-Zawr since yesterday morning, including six strikes on five crude oil collection points, a pipeline, armored vehicles and a shipping container, the US military said in a statement.
The international coalition fighting the IS has sought to disrupt the group’s crude oil supplies, repeatedly targeting refineries, oil tanker trucks and various makeshift depots in Syria. The IS has made substantial profits from illegal oil sales, offering cheap prices far below the market rate. The group also relies on money from ransoms, smuggling of antiquities and extortion in areas under its control.
