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Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |||
RAF whacks ISIS oil fields in Syria | |||
2015-12-05 | |||
The MoD said: 'The Omar oilfield is one of the largest and most important to Daesh's financial operations, and represents over 10 per cent of their potential income from oil. 'Carefully selected elements of the oilfield infrastructure were targeted, ensuring the strikes will have a significant impact on Daesh's ability to extract the oil to fund their terrorism.' The UK Government is apparently targeting 'anything to do with ISIS and oil' as the first step towards defeating the terrorists in the aftermath of Wednesday's night's vote to authorise Syrian airstrikes. The field has previously been hit by American forces - but an Arab diplomat suggested that the US had not done enough to disrupt the jihadists' economic activity. 'We have been giving the Americans the precise coordinates of the oil routes for months, but they do not seem to have done very much about it,' a diplomat told the Daily Telegraph.
Experts have suggested that raids by Britain's allies have already halved the amount of oil that ISIS is able to sell in order to finance its operations around the world. A military source told the Evening Standard: 'We are going after the head of the snake, but it's also about going after its wallet'. ISIS's control of oil fields in north-east Syria has provided them with £320million of revenue which they use to fund their terror activities in the Middle East. The jihadist group is believed to work together with the Assad government - nominally its bitter enemy in the Syrian civil war - to maximise the profits it makes from its industrial operations. State employees have allegedly been ordered to work at ISIS-held energy facilities to ensure that the country's infrastructure remains intact, with the terrorist factory bosses imposing a brutal regime. | |||
Posted by:Steve White |