The
Islamic State (ISIS) is reportedly to still be making more than £320million a year from oil
despite the U.S.-led bombing campaign that was meant to break up the
insurgency. Figures
from oil workers in Syria and Iraq along with Western intelligence
estimates suggest up to 40,000 barrels are being produced every day in
ISIS-held territory.
This
output – which generates around £1million a day in revenue – highlights
a stark failure of the year-long coalition air strikes which have
repeatedly targeted the group's refineries and pipelines.
The
situation has become so perverse that one Syrian rebel commander
admitted he is forced to buy diesel from ISIS areas while fighting the
terror group.
He told the Financial Times: 'It’s a situation that makes you laugh and cry.
'But we have no other choice and we are a poor man’s revolution. Is anyone else offering to give us fuel?'
Officials
in the U.S.-led coalition say the jihadis have adapted their operations
by creating hundreds of small makeshift facilities to refine the oil.
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