U.K. Air-Strikes Target ISIS oil Assets in Syria

Wall Street Journal: U.K. Airstrikes Target Islamic State Oil Assets in Syria

Prime Minister David Cameron says campaign against militants will take time.

LONDON—Britain’s military began airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State targets to bolster a growing effort to cut off the extremist group’s revenue from oil sales.

The first raids, which took place only hours after British lawmakers authorized such strikes, targeted oil infrastructure about 35 miles inside Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said Thursday.

“The terrorists depend for their revenue on the control of oil,” said British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon. “Cutting off their finances is extremely important to degrading the terrorists, to undermining their campaign in Iraq, and to shrink their operations in eastern Syria.”

WNU editor: British ministers are claiming that it will take two years to destroy the Islamic State .... Ministers say it could take two years to destroy Isis (The Guardian). How they have come to this conclusion bewilders me .... because blowing up a few oil installations is not going to make a dent against the Islamic State.