By Katharine J.Tobal



During the last week, much of the anti-ISIS coalition's strikes have focused around the Syrian border town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, in a trying to force the terrorists of ISIS to move back.

The Pentagon has admitted that a chunk of its cache of weapons meant for Kurdish forces battling Islamic State militants in Kobani has fallen into terrorist hands.

The ISIS fighters fired a barrage of mortar shells toward Kobani, in addition to achieving suicide bombs around and inside the city, concentrating their efforts near the border crossing with Turkey. Since almost a month, ISIS launched a severe attack on the city of Kobani which was resisted strongly by the Kurdish fighters.

Here are some new stories, about the so called “military campaign against ISIS” in Syria and Iraq. Actually, these facts raise many questions about what this campaign made for. And, is US really battling ISIS?

US is Targeting the Oil Facilities Claiming They are Funding ISIS

In the time that ISIS fighters were bombing, shelling, and attacking the city of Kobani, threatening the life of at least hundred inside the city, the US-led coalition was attacking Syrian oil facilities claiming that ISIS have seized them in order to sell the oil and cover its need for weapons and military equipments.

The same was for gas stations, as many airstrikes targeted a distribution station Khasham in the recent week, which considers one of the most oil-rich provinces in Deir el-Zour.

Despite the fact that ISIS is controlling these oil sites, but the oil sites are still Syrian ones, millions of dollar were appointed by the Syrian government, in addition to the efforts made by Syrian people themselves, in order to construct what US-led coalition is destroying now.

Reports said that about 11 bombing runs on oil sites across Syria were obtained during the latest days. The US Army Gen. Lloyd Austin claimed that ‘starving ISIL of funds from oil will sap its ability to control and fight’. He said:

By striking these types of facilities, we reduce their ability to generate the funds and the fuel required to sustain their operations, and we are having the desired effects

Previous report by a US-based consultant group said that ISIS was making up to $2 million per day (or $800 million a year) by selling oil at roughly half the official price on the black market (the crude between $25 and $60 a barrel) before the US-led airstrikes. The report by IHS, a leading source in global information and analytics claimed:

Oil fuels ISIL's war machine, notably including the military vehicles vital to its movements and fighting capabilities. Oil directly finances ISIL's myriad activities and encourages the activities of middlemen who sell, transport and export the oil and thus have a vested interest in ISIL.

The reports also added that about 350,000 barrels per day in Iraq and Syria is what ISIS gets. Moreover, ISIS is selling oil at an average of $40 a barrel, compared with $85.40 per barrel settled by international benchmark Brent oil, according to the report.

The co-author of the report, Bhushan Bahree said:

This is financing and fueling a lot of their activities, military and otherwise. There has been smuggling of all sorts of things in this place for thousands of years.

In fact, these strikes are not only endanger civilians, but also destroy the infrastructures in Syria.

The Anti-ISIS Coalition is Giving Weapons and Humanitarian Aids to ISIS!

Lately, an ISIS-associated YouTube account posted a new video online (listed below) saying it shows weapons and munitions dropped by American planes and landed in the areas controlled by the Islamic State in Kobani. It was also posted on ISIS-associated Twitter account of “a3maq news.”

This ‘adverting’ was not the first for ISIS; ISIS had broadly published its obtained American-made weapons before. Many videos were published, showing the militias driving U.S. tanks, MRAPs, Humvees.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that ISIS has also stolen three fighter planes from Iraqi bases it attacked.

Earlier time, the U.S. declared it had dropped some bundles of small arms, ammunition and medical supplies intended for the Kurdish fighters that has been battling ISIS in Kobani. The Defense officials said that the mission was conducted by three Air Force C-130 cargo planes; they also claimed that military supplies were sent from Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Irbil, Iraq, not from US.

The source added that the U.S. had originally dropped 28 bundles, and then destroyed one "stray resupply bundle" to ‘prevent the supplies falling into enemy hands’. The announcement comes as the ISIS posted a video showing off brand-new American hardware in boxes with English writing and a parachute splayed out just beside the windfall.

The Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve said:

We announced that one resupply bundle went astray and was destroyed. We have since relooked at that and we have determined that a second bundle also went astray and probably fell into enemy hands.

Washington estimated the cost of the military campaign since the start of the operation on August 8 with almost $424 million. The average of the defense body’s spending reached $7.6 million a day.

Giving ISIS weapons in a hand and fighting it in the other raised concerns about ‘what’s going on?’! According to reports, US not only threw weapons but also humanitarian aids.

Jonathan Schanzer, a Mideast expert with the Washington D.C.-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said:

I am alarmed that we are providing support for ISIS governance. By doing so we are indemnifying the militants by satisfying the core demands of local people, who could turn on ISIS if they got frustrated.

It is worth noting that the aid programs originated before Obama announced the war on ISIS, but even as State Department officials are aware that ISIS is benefitting from U.S. aid, no major review of the relief programs has been conducted and no significant changes have been made.

500 ISIS fighters Killed In Syria Until Now

With at least $424 million cost, the air strikes on Syria have killed more than 500 ISIS terrorists, since they began, according to Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Activists from the Observatory said that about ‘553 people had been killed since the air strikes began on 23 September, including 32 civilians.

The Observatory has documented the deaths of 464 ISIS terrorists, saying that the real number could be much higher. Also, another 57 fighters belong to al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front were killed in the air strikes.

It’s important to note that Syrian Army was able to kill more than 700 ISIS fighters in 1 week, this is what happened when ISIS attacked al tabqa airport, according to Syrian local media. The terrorists there killed via special ambushes achieved by Syrian Army.

Analysts say that the number of 500 considers too silly comparing with the cost and time and this ambivalence is just a reflection to the U.S. policy. Similar, Obama administration's foreign policy actions continue to be against America's best interests.

Conclusion

According to the American terrorism laws, aid agencies may not provide any form of “material support” to terrorist groups, including humanitarian supplies that fall into their hands. But at least, this is not applied in ISIS case.