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.
I’m just wondering if Turkey was buying up all that oil.
This probably means the terrorists will now go after oil infrastructure in Middle Eastern countries.
Infrastructure = Gainful employment
Most deceitful is our Empire in stating it’s objective to stop oil profits from going to terrorists. For one they are not terrorists, but a government striving to keep the Islamic State a prosperous place to live in and the $2 million a day gross profit from oil sales would mainly be poured back into the economy plus pay for the day-to-day operation of the government.
As I wrote here three days ago, name of the game is to bomb infrastructure back to the stone age and keep the people so terrorized and impoverished they have no ability to break free of the Western powers or stop using the U.S. dollar in oil trading.
"name of the game is to bomb infrastructure" and thus further undermine the Assad regime – the obvious objective. Well, you certainly can't accuse Obama of a lack of transparency, here; it can be seen through a glass-eye up a cat's arse.