At least eight people were killed in at least 50 air strikes on Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province on Friday, during which dozens of oil tankers were destroyed, a monitor said.
Advertisement
An investigation by British newspaper The Financial Times last month estimated the jihadists reap a few $1.5 million a day from oil, based on the price of $45 a barrel. All 224 people on board were killed.
He added that an estimated 25,000 foreign fighters were believed to be fighting for Daesh in Syria and Iraq.
French President Francois Hollande will visit Washington and Moscow next week for talks on pooling US, Russian and French efforts against IS.
Russian television broadcast a video in which a man is seen scrawling For our people! and For Paris! in black pen on bombs minutes before a warplane is set to take off from the countrys airbase in Syria.
Russian aircraft destroyed on Wednesday, during their second massive air strike in Syria, 206 terrorist facilities for 126 sorties, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Col. Gen. Andrey Kartapolov, said. The claim could not be independently confirmed.
The Russian military said it would deploy 12 additional attack planes to Syria as well as a missile ship and navy destroyer.
Early Thursday, the Tu-95 strategic bombers launched 12 long-range cruise missiles on IS targets, including its headquarters in the province of Idlib, fuel depots and a factory making explosives, he said. Putin has ruled out Russian ground action in Syria, a position reaffirmed by his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Advertisement
Officials at the airport in the Lebanese capital of Beirut said the airport will close for three days as of Friday midnight due to Russian military drills in the Mediterranean Sea. The Russian military hasn’t yet commented on the exercise.
