U.S. includes Islamic State-controlled oil installations as strategic target objectives. (UPI/Matthew Bruch/USAF) WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) — Striking fixed Islamic State targets in Syria, including oil facilities, is part of the strategic effort to cripple the group, a Pentagon official said. The group calling itself the Islamic State is said to be financing itself in part through a regional black market for crude oil. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said U.S. military effort to defeat the group is about hitting where they operate. “There’s been a lot of strikes in [the strategic border town of] Kobani, dynamic tactical strikes,” he told reporters during a Thursday press briefing. “But there’s also been almost an equal number of total strikes against fixed facilities, command and control, finance centers, oil refineries [and] fixed sites.” The spokesman countered that the U.S. effort was in support of national ground forces and not so much “about […]