US warplanes, backed by Saudi and United Arab Emirates planes, attacked a series of Syrian oil refineries today in ISIS-held territory, saying the refineries were providing “up to $2 million a day” in revenue for ISIS.
The Pentagon confirmed 12 targets were hit in the Wednesday strikes, focusing on oil infrastructure in ISIS-held eastern Syria, and Centcom said the refineries could refine up to 500 barrels per day.
The value of the destroyed oil infrastructure was not clear, though it seems likely that at some point in the future the US and its allies are going to be on the hook to buy replacement ones for whoever they end up installing in Syria.
That they’re striking civilian infrastructure already on the third day of the war in Syria reflects how little intelligence the US has about potential targets in the nation’s ISIS-held territory, and that they are seemingly just attacking whatever stationary targets they can plausibly argue are providing some measure of aid to ISIS.
