Brent crude fell on speculation that U.S. airstrikes against militants from Islamic State in Iraq will stabilize supplies from OPEC’s second-largest producer. Brent narrowed its premium over West Texas Intermediate for the first time in five days. U.S. planes carried out a strike on artillery positions that were used by the militants to attack Kurdish forces defending their regional capital Erbil, Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby said on Twitter. The Islamic fighters took full control of the Ain Zala and Batma oilfields in the Kurdish area, state-run Northern Oil Co. said Aug. 2. “In the longer term, the U.S. getting involved is probably bearish for oil because any support the Kurds get increases the probability that they are able to retake the oil fields and territory from the militants,” said James Williams , an economist at WTRG Economics, an energy-research firm in London, Arkansas. Brent for September settlement slid […]