ISIL oil trucks, worth $11 million, destroyed in massive airstrike
U.S.-led coalition aircraft destroyed an estimated $11 million worth of oil and trucks this weekend in the largest single airstrike against the Islamic State’s black market oil trade this year.
“You’re going to have multiple effects from this one strike,” Air Force Lt. Gen, Jeffrey L. Harrigian, commander in the Middle East, said Tuesday. “We’ll have to see what this does to their ability to generate fighters.”
Waves of aircraft destroyed 83 oil tankers sitting in the open in Sunday’s attack.
The attacks were ordered after a pilot spotted some vehicles gathering in the Deir ez-Zor province, a key oil-producing region in Syria that is under the control of the Islamic State, which is also called ISIS or ISIL.
The coalition command sent a surveillance aircraft over the area.
The command quickly directed A-10 attack planes, F-16s and two coalition aircraft, which together launched more than 80 weapons, including bombing and strafing runs, at the vehicles.
After the two-year long coalition bombing campaign, militants have learned to avoid concentrating their forces or supplies in the open to avoid airstrikes.
“This is a very good indication that they’re having trouble commanding and controlling their forces,” Harrigian told USA TODAY in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Qatar.
The strikes follow a similar miscalculation made by militants in June when several convoys of fighters and weapons attempted to flee Fallujah. Coalition airstrikes killed more than 300 militants and destroyed at least 200 vehicles.
Last year, the U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign, called Tidal Wave II, aimed specifically at crippling the Islamic State’s ability to generate revenue from selling black market oil. The campaign is named after a World War II operation to bomb refineries that were fueling the Nazi war machine.
Airstrikes aimed at the militants oil operations have resulted in the destruction of more than 600 oil tanker trucks and other infrastructure.
The strike this weekend was the third largest on oil tanker trucks during the two-year air campaign in Iraq and Syria.
The State Department estimated that the Islamic State had generated more than $1 million in oil revenue per day at its peak.
In the initial Tidal Wave II strikes last year, the coalition dropped leaflets on oil tankers before launching attacks, encouraging the drivers to flee their vehicles.
New rules don’t require leaflets to be dropped, but pilots fire warning shots, typically consisting of bombs or rockets that are not aimed directly at the convoy.
“We’ll do that ... to give them a chance to run,” Harrigian said.