US Air Raids Kill IS Fighters, Hit Oil Installations to Choke Funds

NEW YORK – US air raids continued to pound Islamic State (IS) positions in Iraq and Syria on Thursday and early Friday, as British and other European lawmakers looked set to approve bombing missions.

The US Central Command said that American military forces conducted 10 airstrikes against IS, the group also known as ISIS or ISIL.

It said that in Iraq, airstrikes south of Kirkuk destroyed several vehicles used by militants, with raids also west of Baghdad and another near Al-Qaim. In Syria, three airstrikes south and southeast of Deir el-Zour destroyed four tanks in IS hands.

France is the only European nation that has so far sent warplanes into the fray, but Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands have also asked lawmakers to allow their air forces into the frontlines.

Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, the local police chief in Kirkuk, said that one of the raids Thursday south of Kirkuk had killed a large number of IS fighters, including two senior leaders.

He identified the dead IS leaders as Abu Abida and Niama Abid Naif, also known as Abu Fatima.

When hit, the pair was at a “welcoming ceremony” near the village of al-Bashir, receiving a large number of jihadi fighters from Mosul, the IS stronghold in Iraq, and Raqqa in Syria, which the group has declared the capital of its “caliphate.”  

Sources said that Abu Fatima was an IS Wali, or leader, and Abu Abida a senior military commander in Kirkuk province. US officials have not confirmed those deaths.

Air raids by US and Arab allies have also targeted oil refineries in IS hands in eastern Syria, in an effort to halt a multimillion dollar crude operation that funds the group’s caliphate-building.

Raids on 12 refineries took place overnight Wednesday by aircraft from the US, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – members of a coalition of some 50 countries that seek to rout IS, a sectarian Sunni militia of more than 30,000 fighters.

“These small-scale refineries provide fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria, and they are an economic asset to support future operations,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said on Thursday.

The high-profile inclusion of Sunni Arab states is seen as a way to legitimize a US-dominated coalition against Islamists. The Gulf’s aviators include the UAE’s first female pilot, Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri, and a son of Saudi Crown Prince Salman, Khaled.

Meanwhile on Thursday, FBI director James Comey said the bureau has identified the IS fighter who was dubbed “Jihadi John” by UK media. He speaks with a London accent and appeared in videos showing the killing of two US journalists and a British aid worker.

Comey said he would not reveal the man’s identity. American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines were killed by a masked, knife-wielding man – events that hardened Western attitudes against IS.

In New York, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the UN General Assembly and blamed the rise of IS and like-minded extremists on Western "strategic blunders" – although he did not blame the CIA directly.

“Certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hands of madmen, who now spare no one," Rouhani told the 193-nation body. “All those who have played a role in founding and supporting these terror groups must acknowledge their errors.”

US President Barack Obama says IS can be defeated with US-led airstrikes and by arming and equipping Kurds, Iraqis and moderate elements of Syria’s opposition as ground forces. Critics say he lacks reliable allies, over-depends on air-power and has no plan for ending Syria’s civil war.

Meanwhile, more than 120 Islamic scholars have written a letter that accuses IS of having “misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder”. The signatories are all prominent Sunni men from across the Muslim World and the West.

They add to a growing chorus of Muslims who reject the extremist group’s self-declared name, saying the group is neither Islamic nor a state. Its longer titles, ISIS and ISIL, refer to the “Iraq and al-Sham” and “Iraq and the Levant” regions. 

Some Arabs and French-speakers use the Arabic acronym, Daesh, as a derogatory term for the hardliners.