US launch airstrikes on ISIS oil trucks which generate millions of pounds for jihadis
AMERICAN fighter planes have bombed scores of lorries used by Islamic State (ISIS) to smuggle crude oil which generates them millions of pounds EACH MONTH.
American planes have destroyed at least 116 oil lorries
At least 116 lorries were destroyed in an attack in the Deir al-Zour area of eastern Syria earlier today.
The raids were carried out by four attack planes and two gunships based in Turkey.
Islamic State: The Facts
And although the raids were carried out after the atrocities that killed 129 people in Paris on Tuesday night - which ISIS has claimed responsibility for - they were planned beforehand.
American officials wanted to address the issue of ISIS making money by producing and exporting oil from its heartlands of Syria and Iraq.
American officials said last week their country had ranked up its airstrikes against infrastructure that allows ISIS to pump oil in Syria.
ISIS has been heavily bombed recently
Until today, the US had refrained from attacking the fleet used to transport oil, believed to include more than 1,000 tanker trucks, because of concerns about causing civilian casualties.
And civilians in the area were warned about the attacks when two F-16 jets dropped leaflets in the area warning people to leave their vehicles.
The raids on ISIS oil supply is called Tidal Wave II
This part of Tidal Wave II is designed to attack the distribution component of ISIL’s oil smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their military operations.
The campaign in called Tidal Wave II, in tribute to the Original Operation Tidal Wave, which helped counter Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe by attacking Romania’s oil fields and industry.
American military spokesman Colonel Steven H. Warren said: “This part of Tidal Wave II is designed to attack the distribution component of ISIL’s oil smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their military operations.”
ISIS oil supply is under threat
America’s attack on the trucks followers a French raid yesterday on two ISIS targets in the Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria.
The raid came before French President Francois Hollande said his country was now at war with ISIS.