Category: Syria

Image caption IS receives a large portion of its funding from seized oil facilities A US air strike has destroyed more than 238 fuel trucks controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants in north-east Syria, the US military has said. It is thought the pilots found the trucks parked up together, waiting to be loaded at an oil production point near al-Hasakah and Dayr Az Zawr. Warning shots were reportedly fired to scare away the civilian drivers, before the destruction of the trucks began. IS makes large amounts of money from oil it produces from seized facilities. The US Department of Defense says it will release video of the air raid, which took place over the weekend. Last week another 116 tankers were destroyed in a previous air strike. "This was conducted in many ways identical to our last," Pentagon spokesman, Capt Jeff Davis, said on Monday. "It was proceeded […]

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Russian air strikes in Syria have killed over 400 civilians since September this year, monitoring groups say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the death toll from September 30 – when the strikes were launched – until November 20 stood at 403 civilians, a figure that includes 97 children. What the bombing has caused Over 400 civilians killed since September this year, including 97 children. The Syrian Network for Human Rights puts the figure at at least 526 , including 137 children. Since last October, at least 42,234 air strikes have been documented. Over 22,370 ‘barrel bombs’ have also been dropped in that period resulting in death of 6,889 civilians , including 1,436 children, and injuring another 35,000 civilians. At least 100,000 people have fled from Aleppo, while another 1,000 fled an Atma displaced camp in Idlib suburbs. The Syrian conflict has killed at least 250,000 […]

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Needless to say, the world’s attention is now concentrated on the activities of ISIS and the prescriptions for defeating (as opposed to containing) them. Their finances are a major part of this. The Western powers have had some success curtailing hostile groups by attacking their financial flows, restricting movements of cash from ideological supporters and/or members of an ethnic diaspora. However, ISIS has proved more resilient, partly because of its territorial control but also because as much as half of its money is thought to come from petroleum production. The U.S., in the grand tradition of Confederate General Jones’ 1863 attack on the Burning Springs oil field, attempted to cut the groups’ oil income by bombing first, the large Baiji refinery which they had captured and, recently, scores of tanker trucks in Syria carrying off petroleum for sale. For anybody who watched video of the oil well fires in […]

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Syria is one of the greatest disasters of recent times. Here, I argue that the origins of the Syrian collapse are to be found in the economic downturn generated by the gradual depletion of the Syrian oil reserves. Crude oil had created modern Syria, crude oil has destroyed it. This phenomenon can be termed the “Syrian Sickness” and the question is: “which country will be affected next?” Crude oil is a great source of wealth for the countries that possess it. But it is also a wealth that comes as a cycle. Normally, the cycle spans several decades, even more than a century, so that those who live through it may completely miss the fact that they are heading to the end of their wealth. The cycle is especially visible in those areas where the amount of oil is modest; then, the cycle goes faster; wealth and misery appear […]

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U.S.-led air strikes have hit at least 177 targets in the Islamic State’s main oil-producing region over the past month, as Washington intensifies efforts to disrupt a key revenue source estimated to provide more than $1 million a day to the militant group. Those strikes include 116 oil tanker trucks hit by coalition forces earlier this week as the United States targeted the vehicles for the first time in the wake of last Friday’s suicide and shooting attacks in Paris claimed by Islamic State. The stepped-up bombing campaign has also targeted oil and gas separation plants, oil rigs, pumps and storage tanks, according to a Reuters tally of air strikes provided by the Pentagon since Oct 22. The campaign marks a more aggressive U.S. approach. Such targets had previously been considered off limits by the U.S.-led coalition as it sought to avoid civilian casualties and limit the damage to […]

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The U.S. has stepped up its attacks on Islamic State’s industrial base, striking on Monday more than 100 trucks used to carry oil that helps the militant group earn tens of millions of dollars each month. The strikes, part of a broader campaign that began weeks ago, come as the French government conducts airstrikes against Islamic State in retaliation for the series of attacks in the Paris area Friday that killed more than 120 people. The U.S. is providing intelligence and targeting information to the French military to assist in their new campaign. Syrian opposition activists said Monday that the round of French airstrikes against Islamic State ’s self-proclaimed capital in Syria on Sunday night may not have killed any members of the group that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. Four A-10 Thunderbolt fighters and two AC-130 gunships were used Monday to target as many as 300 trucks […]

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Thirty minutes of terror on the streets of Paris looks to become the catalyst for a broad shift in international politics with implications that could last for years.  Much of Continue Reading