New air strikes in Syria as experts say war will cost $US1 billion per month
Date September 26, 2014 - 10:47PM 21 reading now
Alexander Dziadosz
Kurdish Syrian refugees stand in a truck at the Turkish-Syrian border. Photo: Reuters
Beirut: As air and missile strikes hit oilfields and Islamic State bases in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zor overnight and early Friday, experts estimated the war against the militants could cost a billion US dollars a month.
The Pentagon estimated in August the operation in Iraq could cost an average of about $US7.5 million ($8.11 million) a day, but even US defence officials acknowledge that estimate is low and came before US President Barack Obama ordered a broader campaign extending into Syria.
Taking into account the larger-scale air operations over Syria, some budget analysts and former officials say the war's annual cost could rise to more than $US10 billion.
"I think you're talking double-digit billions, not single-digit billions," Jim Haslik, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
The rising costs, however, pale in comparison to the massive funding required to cover the drawn-out counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. The bill for the war in Afghanistan comes to a billion US dollars a week. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation through 2011 cost more than a trillion dollars, according to some estimates.
US-led forces started bombing Islamic State militants in northern and eastern Syria on Tuesday. The United States has been bombing bases of the al Qaeda splinter group in Iraq since last month.
The Friday morning air strikes hit Islamic State bases and positions on the outskirts of the city of al-Mayadin, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
An earlier air strike hit the al-Tanak oilfield area in Deir al-Zor province. Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq, is almost entirely controlled by Islamic State militants and was a major oil-producing province before Syria's conflict began more than three years ago.
Oil has been a top source of revenue for Islamic State militants, and air raids on Thursday targeted refineries controlled by the group. The strikes also have seemed to be intended to hamper Islamic State's ability to operate across the border with Iraq, where it also control territory.
As French fighter jets struck the Islamic State targets in Iraq on Thursday, the US-led coalition gained momentum with an announcement that Britain would join.
Britain, the closest US ally in the past decade's wars, announced on Thursday that it too would join air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, after weeks of weighing its options. Prime Minister David Cameron recalled parliament, which is expected to give its approval on Friday, local time.
In Britain, the counterterrorism police rounded up nine men suspected of having links to a banned Islamist group and searched 18 buildings across the capital and in the English Midlands. Scotland Yard said the men, age 22 to 51, were arrested on suspicion of being members of, or supporting, a banned organisation.
In New York, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, in New York to attend a UN meeting, said on Thursday he had credible intelligence that Islamic State networks in Iraq were plotting to attack US and French subway trains.
However senior US officials and French security services said they had no evidence of that specific threat, and even some Iraqi officials in Baghdad questioned Abadi's comments
One high-level Iraqi government official told Reuters it appeared to be based on "ancient intelligence".
While New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said the department boosted its presence on subways and city streets after the warning, city officials added there was no specific, credible threat.
France said earlier it would boost security on transport and in public places after the killing of French tourist Herve Gourdel by Islamic State sympathizers in Algeria.
While Arab countries have joined the coalition, Washington's traditional Western allies had been slow to answer the call from US President Barack Obama. But since Monday, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands have said they would send planes.
Meanwhile, more than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, including many of the most senior figures in Sunni Islam, issued an open letter denouncing Islamic State. Challenging the group with theological arguments, they described its interpretation of the faith as "a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world."
Mr Obama has vowed to keep up military pressure against the group, which advanced through Kurdish areas of northern Iraq this week despite the air strikes. Some 140,000 refugees have fled to Turkey over the past week, many telling of villages burnt and captives beheaded.
AFP, Reuters, New York Times
***
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
26092014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment