New US-led strikes hit oil fields in Syria's Deir ez-Zor, Hasakeh: Monitor

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

A pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria, in this US Air Force handout photo taken early in the morning of Sept. 23. REUTERS Photo

Fresh air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition fighting jihadists hit two provinces of Syria overnight, targeting oil facilities for a second day, a monitoring group said Sept. 26.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported new air strikes in oilr-rich eastern Deir ez-Zor province and northeastern Hasakeh province, both of which were targeted a day earlier by the coalition.

The Britain-based group said at least two areas in Deir ez-Zor were struck, with the strikes appearing to target oil facilities.

Additional strikes hit an area in Hasakeh, where the target was not immediately clear, the group's director Rami Abdel Rahman said. There were no immediate details of any casualties from the strikes.

They came on a fourth night of bombing by the coalition Washington has assembled to tackle the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The strikes have killed at least 140 jihadists and 13 civilians so far, according to the Observatory, though Washington has yet to acknowledge any civilian casualties.

Raids overnight between Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 also targeted some of the makeshift oil refineries operated by ISIL and others in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakeh.

Black market sales of illegally extracted Syrian and Iraqi oil are believed to account for a large part of the ISIL's funding.

Experts say the group could be earning between $1 million and $3 million a day from oil sales alone.