Tag Archives: Arab Coalition

US Strikes IS Oil Refineries in Syria

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The United States bombed Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in Syria as President Barack Obama recruited more allies to fight the jihadist “network of death.”

US, Saudi and Emirati warplanes broadened their bombardment to target the oil installations in eastern Syria that have helped fund the jihadist group’s brutal rise from rebel faction to alleged global threat.

The strikes came as Obama urged leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to join his coalition and convinced the Security Council to back a resolution to stem the flow of foreign fighters that has swelled the IS ranks.

Belgium and the Netherlands committed warplanes to Iraq and Britain said its parliament would vote Friday on following suit.

Obama told the UN about the Islamic State group, which has grabbed vast areas of Iraq and Syria that, “The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death…,Today I ask the world to join in this effort.”

He added that “We will use our military might in a campaign of air strikes to roll back ISIL.”

Barack Obama addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly in New York

More Air strikes in Syria Hit Islamic State at Iraqi Border

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U.S.-led forces carried out at least 13 air strikes in Syria close to the Iraqi border on Wednesday, a second day of targeting Islamic State militants who have seized land on both sides of the frontier, a group that tracks the Syrian war said.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters the raids had hit the border town of Albu Kamal and surrounding areas.

Albu Kamal, on the main Euphrates River valley highway, is one of the most important border crossings between Iraq and Syria, along a frontier that Islamic State wants to erase after seizing territory both sides and declaring a caliphate.

It links Islamic State’s de facto capital Raqqa in Syria with strategic front lines in western Iraq and militant-held territory down the Euphrates to the western and southern outskirts of Baghdad.