Airstrikes likely carried out by a U.S.-led coalition struck an oil refinery in Syria held by the militant Islamic group ISIS on Sunday, a witness said, shaking buildings and sending flames shooting into the air near the Turkish border.
Explosions lit the sky 'for two hours' at the refinery in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad around 2:30 a.m. local time, local businessman Mehmet Ozer said.
'Our building was shaking, and we saw fire, some 60 meters high, coming from the refinery,' said Ozer, who lives in the nearby Turkish town of Akcakale.
U.S. Central Command, which is overseeing the operation against ISIS, also known as Islamic State or ISIL, did not immediately comment on the strikes. A U.S.-led coalition has been targeting oil installations controlled by the militants, aiming to crippling the group's finances, estimated to be in the range of $3 million US a day.
Aerial campaign began Tuesday
The United States and five Arab allies launched an aerial campaign against ISIS fighters last Tuesday with the aim of rolling back and ultimately crushing the extremist group, which has created a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border.
In seizing territory, ISIS has chased out tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis who belong to minority groups and has imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on residents, including whipping and chopping off the hands of criminals.
The militants have held Syrian activists and international aid workers and journalists captive, and most recently, beheaded a British aid worker and two American journalists.
Some European countries, including France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Britain, are also contributing to the U.S. efforts by targeting ISIS in Iraq.
The coalition's efforts to strike at oil refineries is expected to be a long, slow task as most of the refineries held by the Islamic State group are small and scattered across their territory.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that at least 13 civilians have been killed so far in coalition strikes. Overall, some 190,000 people have been killed in Syria's war, and nearly one-half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million people has been displaced.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, September 28, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
0 comments "ISIS"
Post a Comment