THE Pentagon is casting a sceptical eye toward Russian government claims that its air strikes hit more than 1000 Islamic State oil tankers in just a few days.
One US defence official told Fox News it would be “nearly impossible” to destroy that many tankers with the kind of unguided bombs used by the Russians.
The claims were first made Monday morning. Russian news outlet RT reported online that Russian strikes “torched” more than 1000 tankers delivering crude oil to IS over a five-day period, citing a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry. The Russian air force, according to the report, also hit 472 targets in two days in Syria.
The claims come as the US also says its coalition is hitting a large number of tanker trucks — albeit nowhere near as many strikes as Moscow says it conducted.
The US-led coalition reported hitting 283 vehicles in eastern Syria on November 21.Fox News has confirmed the vehicles were in fact oil tanker trucks.
Another defence official who spoke with Fox News said that the US and Russia were not bombing the same targets.
“It’s hard to verify the effectiveness of Russia strikes without diverting assets,” the official said.
But asked if the US took the Russian claims at face value, the official said: “It’s Russia. They have proven to manipulate information in the past.”
As for the US-backed coalition strikes, the attack by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships was carried out Saturday at a site near Deir el-Zour and al-Hasakah but not reported until Monday. It followed a similar assault on November 15 that destroyed 116 tanker trucks. It is part of a broader air campaign, dubbed Operation Tidal Wave II, designed to cripple the militants’ oil producing, refining and distribution system. The US has said oil provides about half the group’s total income.
Until the November 15 strike, the US had refrained from attacking oil trucks, fearing it could cause unintended civilian deaths.
Instead, US aircraft dropped warning leaflets and made strafing runs in the area to persuade the civilian drivers of the tanker trucks to abandon their vehicles before the bombing began, military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. He added that the US believed no civilians were injured or killed.
IS controls nearly all of Syria’s oilfields, concentrated in the east of the country, producing about 30,000 barrels a day, along with one field in Iraq. It smuggles the oil mainly to Turkey, selling at cut-rate prices and generating nearly $50 million a month.
Colonel Warren last week described Russia’s past air strikes as “reckless” and not the kind of precision strikes used by the coalition. He said Russia was using “dumb” bombs to carry out the majority of its strikes against IS.
No comments:
Post a Comment