U.S. airstrikes in Syria took out 116 Islamic State fuel trucks, the Pentagon announced on Monday, continuing the campaign to strip the terrorist group of its access to oil and the revenue it generates when sold on the black market.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that A-10s and AC-130 gunships struck the 116 trucks Sunday night near Abu Kamal, Syria.
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The fuel truck strikes are the most recent effort in Operation Tidal Wave II, the U.S. mission to disrupt the Islamic State’s ability to get and sell oil to fund its attacks.
Donald Trump, who had previously said that the U.S. needed to take the Islamic State’s oil to cut off their funding, championed the Pentagon’s use of his strategy when the department announced the mission last week.
Davis said the Islamic State’s sale of oil on the black market can generate up to $1 million a day in revenue. Asked why the U.S. decided to increase its focus on incapacitating the terrorist group’s oil fields now, Davis said officials determined the terrorist group using that revenue to kill Syrians was worth the risks of airstrikes, which the U.S. did everything possible to mitigate.
Davis also said the U.S. is warning civilians about the strikes by dropping leaflets to keep those truck drivers who are not Islamic State members away from the trucks in an effort to avoid civilian casualties.
The U.S. is being careful to render the oil infrastructure unusable for about a year, but not permanently ruin it so Syrians can have access to it once the war is over, Davis said.
