U.S. Steps Up Its Attacks on ISIS-Controlled Oil Fields in Syria

[Purveyor]

Source: New York Times

ERBIL, Iraq — The United States and its allies have sharply increased their airstrikes against the sprawling oil fields that the Islamic State controls in eastern Syria in an effort to disrupt one of the terrorist group’s main sources of revenue, American officials said this week.
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For months, the United States has been frustrated by the Islamic State’s ability to keep producing and exporting oil — what Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter recently called “a critical pillar of the financial infrastructure” of the group — which generates about $40 million a month, or nearly $500 million a year, according to Treasury Department estimates.

While the American-led air campaign has conducted periodic airstrikes against oil refineries and other production facilities in eastern Syria that the group controls, the organization’s engineers have been able to quickly repair damage, and keep the oil flowing, American officials said. The Obama administration has also balked at attacking the Islamic State’s fleet of tanker trucks — its main distribution network — fearing civilian casualties.

But now the administration has decided to increase the attacks and focus on inflicting damage that takes longer to fix or requires specially ordered parts, American officials said. The administration decided against taking an even more aggressive approach in hopes that the infrastructure could still be repaired and used again if it was recaptured from the Islamic State.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/us/politics/us-steps-up-its-attacks-on-isis-controlled-oil-fields-in-syria.html?_r=0

[murielm99]

1. Who is buying oil from them? n/t

[metalbot]

2. It's a commodity

There's not a lot of difference between their oil and anyone else's oil, so they can sell it pretty much anywhere they want if they can get it out of the country.