U.S. airstrikes destroy over 100 Daesh oil trucks

A total of 116 tankers were destroyed in the attacks that took place near Deir al Zur, a region controlled by the IS near Syria’s border with Iraq, EFE news reported.

ISIS can make up to $US40 million per month through producing and smuggling oil, according to The Times, while one unnamed western oil worker told Reuters in September that “Islamic State makes not less than $US2 million daily that allows them to pay salaries and maintain their operations”.

The attacks were part of a broader U.S.-led coalition campaign to cripple a key source of revenue for the Islamic State.

The airstrikes were carried out by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships based in Turkey, the paper added.

In an effort to minimize potential civilian casualties, two F-15 fighter jets dropped leaflets an hour prior to the airstrike, warning drivers to leave the almost-300 vehicles gathered in the target area.

The campaign to disrupt the IS war machine is called Tidal Wave II, in a reference to Operation Tidal Wave, a campaign undertaken by the United States during World War II to curtail Axis oil production in Romania. Even the latest strike only hit just over 10 percent of the total trucker fleet, which includes about 1,000 trucks. The area where the trucks assemble in Syria has been closely monitored by reconnaissance drones. On Monday, 295 trucks were in the area, and more than a third of them were destroyed, U.S. officials said. The AC-130s attacked with 30-millimeter Gatling guns and 105-millimeter cannons.

“We’re balancing that with the fact that this revenue is presenting a clear and present threat to Syrians today, in that it’s being converted into funds which are being used for military equipment, which is being used to kill innocent civilians”, Davis said.

Army Col. Steve Warren, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said last week that the USA has learned over time that the militants were quickly replacing or repairing damage to oil distribution centers and other infrastructure. It was not clear how much damage was caused, and no secondary explosions were observed.