US-Led Strikes Hit ISIL Oil Targets as UK Joins Coalition

Local Editor

US aircraft were flying "near continuous" bombing raids against the ISIL militants in Syria, officials said late Friday, after Britain and two more EU nations agreed to join the US-led air armada.

The mission is now similar to US-led air raids undertaken in Iraq, with "near continuous" combat flight operations over Syria, a senior US war official said.

"I can confirm US air operations are ongoing in Syria," the official added.

Belgium, Britain and Denmark earlier approved plans to join the war in the air.

The Pentagon said air strikes - which continued for a fifth day in Syria - had disrupted lucrative oil-pumping operations that have helped fund the militants, but that a final victory, perhaps years away, would need local boots on the ground.

The White House welcomed the new European countries recruited to the Iraq operation, who are expected to add a total of 19 fighter jets in the air campaign over the country.

That would free up more US air power to strike targets in Syria, where American jets are already flying with warplanes from four allied Arab countries.

Britain's House of Commons voted by 524 lawmakers to 43 to back a motion authorizing air strikes in Iraq.
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said there would be no "immediate military action" but that it would be a "long, drawn-out campaign."
He welcomed "a lot of support" for military action in Syria as well, during a sometimes heated parliamentary debate.

Among the naysayers, opposition Labor MP Rashanara Ali, a spokeswoman on education, said she was stepping down from her post in the shadow cabinet in order to abstain from the vote.
"Too many mistakes have been made over the last decade and far too many people in conflict zones have had to pay a high price for misconceived actions by the UK and other countries," Ali said in a letter to party leader Ed Miliband.

Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister David Cameron told lawmakers that ISIL must be confronted.
"This is not a threat on the far side of the world. Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean," Cameron said.
Bahrain, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have already been hitting ISIL targets.

The Netherlands is also sending six F-16 jets and will provide 250 military personnel and 130 trainers for the Iraqi military, and Greece said it would send arms to Kurdish forces in Iraq.
In recent days, Washington and its allies have targeted the funding sources of what US President Barack Obama has branded a "network of death."
The coalition has bombed oil refineries in eastern Syria where ISIL extremists extract crude for sale on the black market.

Experts say sales of oil from Syria and Iraq usually earn ISIL up to $3 million a day.

But now, according to activists in Deir Ezzor, Syria pumping has stopped.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team