BEIRUT/ISTANBUL: Air strikes believed to have been carried out by US-led forces hit three makeshift oil refineries in Syria’s Raqqa province early yesterday as part of an assault to weaken Islamic State (IS) militants, a monitoring group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks occurred shortly after midnight, adding that they also hit a plastic factory.
Islamic State fighters have control over oil produced in eastern Syria and have set up small, makeshift refineries to distil the crude into fuel, one of their main sources of income.
“These so-called refineries are not a real target and they do not weaken Islamic State as they do not have any financial value for them,” Rami Abdelrahman of the Observatory said.
“They are composed of trucks with equipment to separate diesel and petrol used by civilians.”
The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq since August 8 and in Syria, with the help of Arab allies, since Tuesday, in a campaign it says is aimed at “degrading and destroying” the Islamist militants who have captured swathes of both countries.
Abdelrahman said that destroying the makeshift refineries has led to a sharp increase in the price of diesel, adding that for residents in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, for example, the price has more than doubled.
“The price went up from 9,000 Syrian pounds to 21,000 in Aleppo. Hitting these refineries has affected ordinary people, now they have to pay higher prices.”
A medium-sized makeshift refinery, stationed on trucks, can refine up to 200 barrels of crude a day into fuel and other products. The refineries, which Syrian opposition sources say cost up to $230,000 to set up, are assembled in Turkey and transported into Syria.
But the impact of the strikes on the militant group’s capabilities was not immediately clear. IS has gained support among Islamists following the attacks, including from rival groups. Scores of fighters have left Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and other Islamist groups in Syria to join IS since the strikes started.
The Nusra Front is coming under increasing pressure from its own members to reconcile with IS to fight what they describe as a “crusader” campaign against Islam. On Saturday, the group gave its first reaction to the strikes, vowing to retaliate against Western and Arab countries that took part in the coalition.
“It’s not a war against Nusra Front, it’s a war against Islam,” Nusra spokesman Abu Firas Al Suri said in an audio message published on the group’s social media network. “These countries have done a despicable act that will put them on the list of those targeted by jihadist forces all over the world,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, about 300-400 Syrian Kurds crossed back into Syria yesterday from Turkey to help fight against IS, a soldier on the border said, adding that Turkish authorities were not allowing any Turkish Kurds to go to Kobani. Several hundred Kurds were waiting at Mursitpinar, on the Turkish side of the border, in the hope of being allowed to fight alongside their people in Syria, a witness said. Reuters
