U.S. Begins Airstrikes Against ISIS In Syria (Updated)

[DrLeftover]

Yeah. Justice has a point. The people in the rest of the world cannot make any decisions or take any action on their own without the CIA behind it in some way.

Bin Laden even needed them to tell him how to make a videotape while living in a cave.

... ...

I don't think he gives other countries the credit they deserve and is even more arrogant about the US's role in world affairs than some of the conservative windbags he hates, like Limbaugh.

 

[Webster]

Los Angeles Times: Arab allies took lead role in airstrikes on oil refineries

Excerpt...

AArab allies were responsible for the majority of airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group’s oil refineries on Wednesday, flying more warplanes and dropping more bombs than U.S. aircraft, a Pentagon official said.

Arab nations' military involvement in the mission has been crucial for the Obama administration, which wants to avoid accusations it was again intervening in the Middle East in the face of Arab opposition.

Fighter jets and drones belonging to the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates dropped bombs on a dozen oil refineries in eastern Syria Wednesday in an attempt to begin dismantling the financial bulwark that has made Islamic State one of the world’s wealthiest terrorist groups. Saudi Arabia and the UAE flew 16 fighter jets in the air campaign and dropped 23 bombs, which represented 80% of the tonnage dropped on the targets, U.S. officials said.

“Largely that comes from the fact that the bombs they were dropping were of greater weight,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a Thursday news briefing, adding that six American aircraft dropped 18 bombs.

U.S. Central Command, which is in charge of the operation against Islamic State, said the small-scale refineries targeted were estimated to produce up to 500 barrels of refined petroleum per day, and helped bankroll the Islamic State’s continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group of Sunni extremists controls considerable oil-producing regions in Syria. Intelligence officials say that the oil is often sold at rebated prices on the black market to traders, businessmen and smugglers through porous borders across northern Syria and western Iraq. Pentagon officials estimate that the militants generated up to $2 million a day off such oil refineries.

The refineries hit were located near the eastern Syrian towns of Mayadin, Hasakah and Abu Kamal. Assessments were still being made, Kirby said, but the militants are “not going to be using these refineries for some time.”