Category: Syria

U.S. and Arab warplanes attacked small oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State to undercut the extremist Sunni group’s revenue and impede its mobility, the Pentagon said. As the U.K. prepared for a parliamentary vote tomorrow to authorize joining the broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War, aircraft and drones operated by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attacked 12 “modular” refineries Islamic State uses in its oil-smuggling operations, U.S. Central Command said in an e-mailed statement. “These small-scale refineries provided fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria and an economic asset to support their future operations,” the command said in statement, which used an acronym of another name used to identify the group. Islamic State may have been raising more than $2 million a day from oil sales in Iraq and Syria, paid […]

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The latest user generated content from the ground in Syria following Tuesday’s airstrikes against Islamic State. WSJ’s Mark Kelly reports. The U.S. and Arab allies launched a second major wave of airstrikes in Syria targeting mobile oil refineries controlled by Islamic State, the Pentagon said. Inside Syria, local residents reported that the radical fighters were taking measures to evade attacks such as moving into civilian areas in towns and cities in eastern Syria. The warplanes hit 12 modular oil refineries located in remote areas of eastern Syria, the Defense Department said. U.S. officials said the latest airstrikes on Wednesday aimed at cutting off a key source of income for Islamic State forces, which smuggle oil from captured Syrian infrastructure and sell it on the black market. U.S. officials said the money from the oil has allowed Islamic State militants to finance their operations in Iraq and Syria. Refugees wait […]

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The number of Syrian refugees who have reached Turkey in the past four days after fleeing the advance of Islamic State militants now totals 130,000, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Monday. Numan Kurtulmus warned that the number could rise further but insisted that Turkey was ready to react to "the worst case scenario." "I hope that we are not faced with a more populous refugee wave, but if we are, we have taken our precautions," Kurtulmus said. "A refugee wave that can be expressed by hundreds of thousands is a possibility." The refugees have been flooding into Turkey since Thursday, escaping an Islamic State offensive that has pushed the conflict nearly within eyeshot of the Turkish border. The conflict in Syria has pushed more than a million people over the border in the past 3 1/2 years. The al-Qaida breakaway group, which has established an […]

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WASHINGTON — A House divided along unusual and unpredictable lines voted Wednesday to authorize the training and arming of Syrian rebels to confront the militant group Islamic State, backing President Obama after he personally pleaded for support. The 273-to-156 vote was over a narrow military measure with no money attached, but it took on outsize importance and was infused with drama. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, actively and strongly backed the legislation, and both sought to portray it as a modest measure. The Senate hopes to pass it as soon as Thursday. “The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,” President Obama said Wednesday in addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. “I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another […]

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — At least 28 Syrian rebel leaders of a same group were killed on Tuesday when a powerful blast targeted their gathering place in the northwestern province of Idlib, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The slain rebels were leaders of the Ahrar al-Sham militant group. A booby-trapped car ripped through their meeting place in the town of Ram Hamdan in the countryside of Idlib, the report said. Other reports said the main leader of Ahrar al-Sham, Hassan Aboud, who also goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Abdullah al-Hamwi, was also killed in the deadly blast. The opposition activists have so far stopped short of identifying the party behind the blast, even though it’s likely part of the rebel-on-rebel infighting that has raged in recent months of the crisis. Ahrar al-Sham is a coalition of Islamist and Salafist units which formed […]

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EIN ZIVAN Golan Heights (Reuters) – Heavy fighting between the Syrian army and Islamist rebels erupted on Monday on the Golan Heights, where the militants have wrested control of a key frontier crossing which had been operated by the United Nations. It was not clear whether the forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had managed to retake control of the Quneitra crossing from the rebels of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Persistent gunshots and explosions from mortar shells and other munitions could be heard on the Israeli-controlled side of the frontier and combatants could be clearly seen targeting each other with their weapons. At least one tank belonging to the Syrian army was also involved and some rebels could be seen a few meters (yards) away from the frontier fence. A large Syrian flag that had been flying for days between the Quneitra crossing and the abandoned town […]

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BAGHDAD — Syria’s foreign minister said Monday that his government was ready to cooperate with international efforts to fight the extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But in a nod to the possibility of expanded American airstrikes, he warned that any action inside Syria without the government’s approval would be considered “aggression.” The offer by the minister, Walid al-Moallem, appeared to be a preliminary effort to rehabilitate the international standing of his government, which has been condemned by the United States and others for its brutal tactics in the country’s civil war and against the popular uprising that preceded it. In comments to reporters in Damascus, Mr. Moallem seemed well aware of how greatly the rise of ISIS in both Syria and Iraq had changed Western views toward the region. He presented his government as the natural partner in the fight against jihadist groups. “Syria is […]

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WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized surveillance flights over Syria, a precursor to potential airstrikes there, but a mounting concern for the White House is how to target the Sunni extremists without helping President Bashar al-Assad. Defense officials said Monday evening that the Pentagon was sending in manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Syria, using a combination of aircraft, including drones and possibly U2 spy planes. Mr. Obama approved the flights over the weekend, a senior administration official said. The flights are a significant step toward direct American military action in Syria, an intervention that could alter the battlefield in the nation’s three-year civil war. Administration officials said the United States did not intend to notify the Assad government of the planned flights. Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly called for the ouster of Mr. Assad, is loath to be seen as aiding the Syrian government, even inadvertently. As a […]

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