Orlando Sentinel

U.S.-backed forces capture Syria oil field from ISIS

- By Sarah El Deeb

BEIRUT — U.S.-backed fighters captured Syria’s largest oil field from the Islamic State group Sunday, marking a major advance against the extremists in an area coveted by pro-government forces.

With Islamic State in retreat, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government have been in a race to secure parts of the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province along the border with Iraq.

The Al-Omar oil field was a major source of income for the militant group and is considered one Syria’s most productive. The condition of the field, which Islamic State has controlled for three years, was not clear following intense coalition and Russian airstrikes.

The SDF, with air support from the U.S.-led coalition, said it captured the field in a “swift and wide military operation.” It said some militants have taken cover in oil company houses nearby, where clashes were underway. The U.S.-led coalition confirmed the SDF had retaken the oil field.

After coming under heavy fire from Islamic State, also known as ISIS, pro-government forces retreated from the area around the Al-Omar field, according to the Britainbas­ed Syrian Observator­y for Human Rights. The SDF said government forces were 2 miles from the fields.

Syrian troops, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian-sponsored militias, have retaken nearly all of the provincial capital of Deir el-Zour, as well as the town of Mayadeen, another Islamic State stronghold, which is across the Euphrates River from the AlOmar field.

The SDF focused its operations in rural Deir elZour on the eastern side of the river and already had seized a major natural gas field and other smaller oil fields.

Islamic State captured Al-Omar in 2014, when the group swept across large areas in Syria and neighborin­g Iraq. At the time, the field was estimated to produce around 9,000 barrels a day. Its current potential is unknown.

Syria had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels as of 2015, giving it the largest supply among its neighbors after Iraq. The oil industry was a pillar of the Syrian economy before the conflict in 2011.

As Islamic State advanced in Syria, it seized control of most of Syria’s oil fields and made petroleum a major earner for the militant group, which sold it on the undergroun­d market to other insurgents and the Syrian government.

Since the coalition began operations against Islamic State in 2014, the militants’ oil production has been reduced from a peak of approximat­ely $50 million per month to currently less than $4 million, the coalition said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The government lost the al-Omar field to other insurgents in 2013.

Al-Manar TV, operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, said the fight for Al-Omar was still underway and denied the SDF’s claim to have captured it. The militant group fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The official Syrian news agency said troops regained full control of Khosham, a town on the eastern side of the Euphrates River that they lost a day earlier to Islamic State. The Observator­y for Human Rights said parts of the town remain contested.

It’s not clear how Syrian troops will respond to the SDF’s seizure of Al-Omar. Assad has vowed to eventually bring all of Syria back under government control.

The two sides have accused each other of firing on their forces in Deir el-Zour province, but a meeting of senior U.S. and Russian military officers last month appeared to have calmed tensions.

Islamic State has suffered major setbacks in recent months, including the loss of the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul. Most of the territory the group once held has been seized by an array of Syrian and Iraqi forces.

An estimated 6,500 Islamic State fighters remain in eastern Syria and western Iraq, the U.S. military said last week.

 ?? HUSSEIN MALLA/AP ?? As of 2015, Syria had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels, the largest supply among its neighbors after Iraq.
HUSSEIN MALLA/AP As of 2015, Syria had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels, the largest supply among its neighbors after Iraq.

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