AFP
September 26, 2014, 5:23 am
US-led Syria strikes target jihadist oil sites
Damascus (AFP) - The United States and its Arab allies bombed oil facilities operated by jihadists in Syria to choke off their funding, killing more than a dozen militants.
France meanwhile launched new air strikes Thursday in neighbouring Iraq and pledged more support for Syrian opposition forces, upping its fight against extremists following the beheading of a French hostage.
American, Saudi and Emirati warplanes hit oil installations in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, broadening the campaign they launched this week beyond military targets to economic assets.
IS, which has imposed its brutal rule over large parts of Syria and Iraq, has been using small-scale mobile refineries to generate up to $2 million (1.6 million euros) in revenues per day, Washington said.
Jihadists seized and set fire to a cement factory in Syria owned by French construction giant Lafarge near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.
The strikes against the oil refineries killed 14 jihadists but also left five civilians dead, including a child, according to the Britain-based monitoring group.
It said foreigners from Europe, Arab nations, Chechnya and Turkey made up the vast majority of the more than 140 jihadists killed since the US-led raids began in Syria.
The Pentagon said it would investigate reports of civilian deaths but insisted the raids were carried out with precision.
It said US planes also carried out fresh strikes against IS fighters in Iraq, destroying armed vehicles, a tank and other targets.
The latest raids came as US President Barack Obama urged leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to join the coalition and convinced the Security Council to back a resolution aimed at stemming the flow of foreign fighters joining IS.
Belgium and The Netherlands committed warplanes to Iraq and Britain said its parliament would vote Friday on following suit.
"The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death," Obama told the UN.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the West was responsible for "strategic blunders" that had created terror havens.
The IS group has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a Muslim "caliphate" imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
- 'Determination and vigilance' -
It has committed widespread atrocities including mass executions of captured Iraqi soldiers, forced conversions of non-Muslims and the on-camera beheadings of Western hostages including two US journalists and a British aid worker.
FBI chief James Comey said Thursday that the United States believed it had identified the masked IS militant who murdered the two American journalists, without naming the suspect.
It came a day after jihadists in Algeria posted video footage of the execution of an abducted Frenchman, Herve Gourdel, after Paris rejected their demand to halt strikes in Iraq.
President Francois Hollande pledged "determination, composure and vigilance" in the face of jihadi threats.
The Philippines said it would not negotiate with a militant group threatening to behead one of two German hostages unless a huge ransom is paid and Berlin halts support for the campaign against IS.
In Iraq jihadists were said to have executed a female rights activist who criticised IS on social media.
The US-led coalition has carried out some 20 strikes in Syria since the start of the week and Washington nearly 200 in Iraq since launching air raids there in early August.
The raids in Syria have hit IS positions, command centres, training compounds and vehicles, in their regional stronghold of Raqa and near the Syria-Iraq border.
In New York, Obama chaired a UN Security Council meeting that unanimously adopted a binding resolution to turn back the flow of foreign fighters heading to Iraq and Syria.
- Europeans boost support -
More than 50 nations have joined the US-led coalition against IS, including key Arab states, and in recent days more countries have promised concrete military support.
Belgium and the Netherlands said they would each send six F-16 fighter bombers to take part in the air campaign in Iraq.
The Netherlands will also deploy 250 military personnel and 130 trainers for the Iraqi military, and Greece said Thursday it would send arms to Kurdish forces battling the jihadists.
Britain has yet to join the strikes but Prime Minister David Cameron said parliament would vote Friday on whether to take part in the military campaign.
Nine people were arrested in London early Thursday on suspicion of encouraging terrorism and belonging to a banned extremist Islamist organisation.
There had been fears the strikes could inadvertently help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which is locked in a three-and-a-half-year civil war with rebels that the UN says has left more than 190,000 dead.
The jihadists have posed the most serious threat to his regime, though Washington has vowed to arm and equip moderate rebels as part of the anti-IS campaign.
Regime troops on Thursday recaptured the strategically important town of Adra near the capital that was seized by rebels in December.
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