Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Russian warplanes destroyed 15 oil refining and storage facilities in Syria and 525 trucks carrying oil during this week’s bombing blitz.
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He described the raids, which targeted several large cities and smaller towns in the province and three oil fields, as “the worst bombardment of the region since the start of the uprising in 2011”.
Deir al-Zor province links Islamic State’s de facto capital in Raqqa with territory controlled by the group in Iraq.
Russian Federation stepped into Syria recently fighting its own battle against the Islamic State, independent of the coalition led by the United States.
Moscow ratcheted up its bombing campaign in Syria on Tuesday after confirming for the first time that a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt last month was brought down by a bomb.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that in the Russian defence ministry video soldiers can be seen writing messages on the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft – phrases like: “This is revenge for our dead” and “This is for Paris”. Shoigu said the strikes this week inflicted significant casualties on IS, including more than 600 militants killed in just one strike in the province of Deir el-Zour.
Col Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for US Central Command, said the Russian air strikes in recent days targeted more IS areas, including the group’s oil infrastructure.
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The UN Security Council on Friday backed a French-drafted measure calling on member states to “take all necessary measures” to fight IS, a week after the Paris attack. He said this deprived IS of $1.5 million in daily income from oil sales.
