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U.S.-led airstrikes could open new fronts for Syrian battles against Islamic State U.S. says airstrikes have crippled most oil refineries seized by Islamic State in Syria
(about 5 hours later)
BEIRUT — Syrian government forces clashed with Islamic State fighters near Damascus, a report said Thursday, in a possible sign that President Bashar al-Assad’s military may step up offensives amid the wider fallout from U.S.-led airstrikes against the militants. BEIRUT — American military officials said Thursday that U.S. and allied airstrikes had crippled most of the small oil refineries controlled by Islamic State in Syria, and the remainder would be targeted in coming days.
On other fronts, Syrian Kurdish fighters appealed for warplanes to hit Islamic State units gathering for another bid to seize a strategic town near the Turkish border. In Iraq, French and U.S. airstrikes targeted Islamic State networks. “The point was to render them incapable of using these refineries, which was a significant stream of revenue for them,” Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters Thursday.
The air attacks by the U.S. and Arab partners launched this week in Syria have sought to deny the Islamic State its key bases and funding sources. On Wednesday, the Pentagon said warplanes and drones attacked at least a dozen small-scale refineries in eastern Syria used in oil smuggling that can bring in as much as $1 million a day. The attacks by the U.S. military and two Arab partners were part of a broadening assault on Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Britain was expected to join the coalition with a parliamentary vote on Friday approving airstrikes in Iraq.
American officials said Assad’s envoys were notified in advance that the airstrikes would expand from northern Iraq to Syria. But the State Department insists there is no strategic coordination with Assad’s government, which has been fighting a more than three-year civil war against rebel factions that include groups backed by the West. But despite the stepped-up effort, the radical Islamist fighters are threatening to expand their grip on Syria by trying to take a key town on the Turkish border. Kurdish Syrian leaders appealed Thursday for American warplanes to help them by hitting Islamic State units near the town of Kobane, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.
Assad’s government also views the Islamic State as the rising threat and could use the blows inflicted by the airstrikes as indirect help to open new ground battles against the militants. The Obama administration is seeking to assemble an international coalition to destroy Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot also known as ISIS or ISIL. The group has seized control of a large swath of land crossing the Syrian-Iraqi border and is seeking to impose a caliphate, or nation ruled by a harsh version of Islamic law.
At the same time, President Barack Obama has urged for sharply increased military aid and training to “moderate” Syrian rebels as a potential proxy force against the Islamic State. The greater rebel firepower also could be turned against the Syrian government. Kirby said the Islamic State produced about 300 to 500 barrels a day from each of the small refineries in Syria, providing the jihadists with revenue as well as refined fuel for their vehicles.
But in a possible gain for Assad, government forces took control of an Islamic State foothold in an area about 19 miles northeast of Damascus. The report by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV could not be independently verified, but Lebanon-based Hezbollah have helped support Assad by sending fighters to Syria. He told reporters in Washington that U.S. military officials were still conducting damage assessments from the attacks a day earlier, but were confident that the dozen facilities that were targeted had been disabled. The warplanes tried to partially damage the refineries with precision-guided munitions instead of destroying them, he added. Some of the infrastructure was left intact in the hope that a future Syrian government – controlled by moderate forces instead of President Bashar al-Assad or the Islamic State – might be able to restart the refineries, he said.
The area of the reported fighting, Adra al-Omalia, has not been part of the U.S.-directed air campaign against the Islamic State and other groups such as an al-Qaeda-inspired splinter cell believed plotting to hit Western targets. While the attacks marked an expansion of the new offensive in Syria, Islamic State makes most of its money from crude oil, not refined. So the latest airstrikes will not be enough to shut down the flow of Islamic State oil, analysts said.
In northern Syria, Kurdish fighters said Islamic State forces, backed by heavy weapons and vehicles, were opening another assault on the border town of Kobane, or Ayn al-Arab in Arabic. Kobane’s fall would give the militants control over an important stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier, one of the supply routes for the group. More than 130,000 people have fled the clashes. “The air strikes on the oil refineries were tactically spectacular, but strategically insignificant,” said Chris Harmer, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War who previously served with the U.S. military in Iraq and Bahrain.
“ISIS controls the oil fields. Destroying small oil refineries will just shift production from small refineries controlled by ISIS to micro refineries located in residential neighborhoods,” he said.
The Pentagon emphasized that the operation was led by fighter jets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with U.S. warplanes dropping fewer than half of the bombs. The Obama administration has sought to emphasize the participation of Arab militaries in the airstrikes, in part to deflect the charge that the United States is waging a war on Muslims.
In northern Syria, Kurdish fighters said Islamic State forces were battling to advance on Kobane. The Kurdish town’s fall would give the militants control over an important stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier. More than 130,000 people have fled during about 10 days of clashes in the border area.
Syrian opposition activists and local Kurds reported airstrikes in the area on Wednesday, but the U.S. military has not confirmed any activity there.
“The strikes have shown no effect on the ground and resistance is very difficult,” said Abdul Azzizi, a Kurdish activist from Kobane who has moved to near the Turkish border.
Kurdish Syrian leaders pleaded again Thursday for American assistance.
“[The] bases of ISIL and all their heavy weapons, vehicles and equipment are in the open air, visible to everyone, but yet they haven’t been targeted by the airstrikes,” said a statement from Redur Xelil, spokesperson of the People’s Protection Units, one of the Kurdish groups.“[The] bases of ISIL and all their heavy weapons, vehicles and equipment are in the open air, visible to everyone, but yet they haven’t been targeted by the airstrikes,” said a statement from Redur Xelil, spokesperson of the People’s Protection Units, one of the Kurdish groups.
Across the border in Iraq, U.S. airstrikes ranged from near the northern city of Irbil to areas west of Baghdad, targeting fighters and vehicles including a tank, according to a Central Command statement. Across the border in Iraq, U.S. planes carried out airstrikes ranging from near the northern city of Irbil to areas west of Baghdad, targeting fighters and vehicles including a tank, according to a Central Command statement.
The full extent of the air attacks remains unclear as they moved into a fourth day. But that overall contours of the strategy point to efforts to degrade the Islamic State’s arsenal, supply lines and main funding sources. France, which last week launched its first airstrikes in northern Iraq, followed up Thursday with more attacks, French media reported. The airstrikes came a day after a French citizen, Herve Gourdel, was beheaded by an Algerian Islamist group claiming revenge for French military action against the Islamic State.
On Wednesday, the U.S. fighter jets and drones, alongside warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, struck refineries in eastern Syria. The sites are among oil facilities seized by the militants during their rapid advance in the past months. In a possible gain for Assad, meanwhile, government forces took control of an Islamic State foothold in an area about 19 miles northeast of Damascus, according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV. The report could not be independently verified, but Lebanon-based Hezbollah has helped support Assad by sending fighters to Syria.
The Islamic State is estimated to produce between 25,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil a day, earning as much as $1 million a day, according to industry experts. Whitlock reported from Washington. Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
The United States has so far relied on Arab backing for the expanding air attacks.
But France last week launched its first airstrikes in northern Iraq, and followed up Thursday with more attacks in Iraq, French media reported. The airstrikes came a day after a French citizen, Herve Gourdel, was beheaded by an Algerian Islamist group claiming revenge for French military action against the Islamic State.
French officials called an emergency meeting Thursday. The discussions could include whether to expand its airstrikes to Syria, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio.
Other European nations, meanwhile, have taken steps to aid the international coalition.
Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, whose fighters have been on the front lines against the Islamic State. Germany also began the delivery of military aid to the Iraqi Kurds, including 50 hand-held anti-tank weapons.
In the Netherlands — which is sending six F-16 fighter jets to join the air campaign — the defense minister advised military personnel not to wear their uniforms on public transportation because of fears of backlash from Islamist militants.
British Prime Minister David Cameron plans to ask parliament on Friday for approval to join the airstrikes.
“We must not allow past mistakes to become an excuse for indifference or inaction,” Cameron said at the United Nations. “We are facing an evil against which the whole of the world should unite and as ever, in the cause of freedom, democracy and justice, Britain will play its part.”
Murphy reported from Washington.