Airstrikes target militants’ finances
Bombings hit Islamic-State held oil installations
U.S.-led airstrikes Thursday that targeted Syrian oil installations held by Islamic State aimed to knock out one of the militants’ main revenue streams: black market oil sales that the U.S. claims earn up to $2 million a day for the group.
That funding, along with a further estimated $1 million a day from other smuggling, theft and extortion, has been crucial in enabling the extremists to overrun much of Syria and neighbouring Iraq. Islamic State is believed to control 11 oilfields in Iraq and Syria. Three days of strikes have killed at least 19 people and led to claims of civilian casualties, possibly wives and children of militants. A Pentagon spokesman said the military is looking into the reports.
Fighter pilot seen as female rebuke
The new strikes involved six U.S. warplanes and 10 more from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. One of the U.A.E. F-16 flyers was the country’s first female air force pilot, Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri. Social media has been buzzing about al-Mansouri’s part in the attacks against the jihadist group, with many users taking delight in the rebuke it implied toward the militants’ ultraconservative ideology.
Yousef al-Otaiba, Abu Dhabi’s envoy to Washington, linked al-Mansouri’s role to the campaign to defeat Islamic State. “Do you want a model or a society that allows women to become ministers in government, female fighter pilots, business executives, artists? Or do you want a society where if a woman doesn’t cover up in public she’s beaten or she’s lashed or she’s raped? This is ultimately what this breaks down to,” he said.
U.S. denies claim
of N.Y.C. plot
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said at the UN Thursday that captive Islamic State militants told his intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris. A senior White House official said no one in the U.S. government is aware of such a plot and that the claim was never brought up in meetings with Iraqi officials this week in New York. There was no immediate comment from France, although a half-dozen French officials said they knew of no plot.
Turkey defends itself
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said the task of taking on jihadists in neighbouring states is too great for his overstretched country, defending Ankara from charges of doing too little to stop fighters entering Syria and Iraq.
“This is not a fight to be carried out solely by Turkey,” he said, adding that Turkey had placed 3,600 people on a “no-entry list” and deported nearly 1,000 foreigners, though he did not say they had all been suspected jihadists.
Regional leadership needed, Iran says
Moderate leaders in the Middle East must spearhead the fight against extremists, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the UN General Assembly, warning that Islamic State’s goal of destroying civilization is generating anti-Muslim hatred and creating fertile ground for further intervention of foreign forces in the region.
Leaders who are neither anti- nor pro-western and know “the pain” the region is experiencing can win the confidence of people in their countries “and establish the strongest national and international coalitions against violence,” he said.
Rouhani warned that if countries that have joined the coalition “do so to continue their hegemony in the region, they would make a strategic mistake.” This appeared to be directed to the monarchies that are part of the coalition: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.