US Airstrikes Destroy 283 Fuel Tankers in East Syria

“We have destroyed 116 tanker trucks and reduced ISIS’s ability to transport stolen oil”, reported Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the combined joint task force, on November 18, after 15 months of bombing ISIS. The Pentagon said it had previously avoided the fuel trucks over fears of civilian casualties, and said it dropped leaflets ahead of these recent attacks to warn drivers to abandon their trucks ahead of the bombings.

Despite the claims, the tankers were not owned by ISIS, but by private operators. Given that the Islamic State is thought to have just over 1,000 trucks in its entire fleet, the group of 300 represented a huge target for US planes.

PBS NewsHour spliced Russian Defense Ministry’s video of airstrikes against ISIS oil infrastructure into their report.

USA officials say the fighters to the north don’t have enough combat power to take Raqaa and the fighters to the east must first push south to seize a key road junction before advancing on Raqaa.

The U.S. has stepped up its strikes on IS oil assets since the Paris attacks in an effort to cripple its finances, in a campaign known as “Tidal Wave II”.

Syrian government troops are gaining ground thanks to Russian Federation, al-Assad said in an interview on Sunday.

A video grab purporting to show an explosion after air strikes carried out by the Russian air force on an Islamic State facility in the Syrian province of Idlib.

Oil production is of the ISIS’s main sources of revenues, with the group now controlling about 60 percent of Syria’s crude production and 10 percent of Iraq’s crude production.

The strikes on ISIS trucks come amid an intensification of operations against the militant group.

In its daily summary of airstrikes, the U.S.-led military coalition said Monday that 283 vehicles had been struck in eastern Syria on Saturday but did not elaborate. And the Russians have fired a total of 42 cruise missiles against ISIS targets in Syria.